


The Coming Doom

by TheHubby



Series: The Huntress [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Justice League, Sky High (2005)
Genre: Comics/Movie Crossover, Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-03-27
Packaged: 2017-12-06 16:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 46,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHubby/pseuds/TheHubby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>2nd in the Huntress Series, Helena prepares for their senior year at Sky high, when villains start attacking. What does Doom have to do with it? Will Aneleh help or hinder her, as they struggle for control over Helena's body?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cat up a Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Sky High (2005) and any characters within the movie belong to Disney. Anything from the Superman, Batman or Justice League universes belongs to DC Comics. I own my original characters and my plot. I am not trying to pass any of these characters or copyrighted ideas off as my own and therefore it isn’t plagiarism or copyright infringement.

A year had passed since the events at the Gotham Zoo and Helena’s transformation. Her training with J’onn to control her animalistic side who calls herself Aneleh is progressing slowly.  With each attempt to  contact her she would try to control Helena’s body, so J’onn has restrained Aneleh in her home until she was willing to negotiate.

After all that has happened life was finally starting got back to normal around Wayne Manor, Bruce felt confident enough to allow Helena to continue  combat training and her relationship with Warren was getting stronger. It was a couple weeks before the start of their senior year and they were asked to be part of the first annual freshman camp-out. It was designed so that the seniors and some key teachers would mentor the freshmen students as a new bonding policy.

“Young Miss, I have prepared your things for the camping trip. I shall put them next the Young Mr. Peace’s items in the jet. We leave in 30 minutes, please be prompt.” Alfred announced over the intercom in her room. Helena and Warren lie on the bed and look at the celling as he caressed her right shoulder.

“Thank you Alfred, we won’t be late.” Pushing the button on the intercom by her bed, Helena then looked over at Warren who had a slight disapproving look.

“I really wish you didn’t volunteer me to babysit the freshmen class during this camp-out. When Stronghold and the Hippie heard they begged Principle Powers to let them go too. “Sitting up he rested on his hands as Helena got off the bed.

“Oh c’mon Warren, I needed someone to protect me from those young hormones. Besides with your reputation they won’t dare go against the rules and once they find out who my dad is they won’t try to sneak out after dark. We make a great team and I know you enjoy molding fresh young minds.” Helena laughed as she sat on the edge of her bed and put on boots.

Getting out of the bed and kissing her neck Warren turned to his jacket hanging on the chair and put it on. Sliding on his sneakers Warren stood in front of her and folded his arms.” So will J’onn be joining us or do you pretty much have _her_ under control?”

As tying the boot laces Helena paused.  “We have come to an agreement. She hasn’t relented but she hasn’t tried to possess me either.” Looking up at Warren she smiled at him, “Don’t worry, it’s just you and me in this relationship.”

Leaving the room making their way downstairs they were greeted by Alfred at the front door, he was smiling as always in his dapper butler’s garb, white gloves, and perfectly shined black shoes. “Master Bruce expresses his apologies at not seeing you off. He had a pressing business matter that needed his immediate attention. He wishes both of you the best of luck and to enjoy yourself, but not too much.” Chuckling Alfred winked at them as he opened the door.

“Don’t worry Alfred, it’s strictly business this trip.  Don’t be too bored without us, okay?” Helena gave him a kiss on his check as she and Warren walked out the door.

“With your father I doubt I shall be without work to do, young miss. The Jet awaits, have a wonderful time!” Alfred waved and closed the door.

Walking the long pathway they climbed the steps and got onto the jet and sat down, putting on their seatbelts the pilot closed the door and the roar of the engines broke the silence. Soon they were in the air and heading to Sky High where they were to meet with the teachers and freshmen students. Looking out the window Helena was excited at this chance to be with Warren for a weekend and be able to teach the younger generations about responsible use of their powers.  Twenty minutes pass and soon the school came into view. The thumping of the landing gear striking the ground as they landed was all too familiar to both Warren and Helena. As the jet came to a stop the door opened and as the duo looked out upon all the new faces Helena was even more excited for a band new year at Sky High.

Helena could feel all eyes on her and Warren as they got out of the plane and walked to Mr. Medulla, Mr. Boy, and Mrs. Stronghold. “Oh goody, our esteemed body guards have arrived. If only you were this punctual in my classes.” Medulla quipped as Helena got close.

“Mr. Medulla please behave yourself. You should be happy Helena and Warren volunteered to mentor the freshman class. “Mrs. Stronghold gave Helena and Warren a hug as she gave Mr. Medulla a sharp look.

“Yes Medulla, after all these two have truly proven their worth. Besides I know the next time they go into combat they will know where reach me for hero support, right?” Mr. Boy gave them a wink and a smile as everyone stared back at him. Slowly he moved backward and made his way to the nearest bus.

“Why they have him on this trip hurts my enormous head. Anyway, shall we herd the _cattle_ into the busses and get going?” Medulla quickly turned and yelled at the students to get on their busses. Helena and Warren began taking roll call as each student loaded on the bus, after all were aboard the doors closed and all took off towards the campgrounds.

A couple hours pass before the students reached the campgrounds in the Yosemite National Park. As the busses pulled up to the designated drop off  area Helena noticed that there was row after row of canvas tents forming a circle around a central fire ring. Each section was divided by power and gender with the females to the north and the males to the south with a teacher and student councilor between the sections. As each bus unloaded Helena noticed Will Stronghold carrying a large log to the fire circle as Leila was directing some of the female students to their tents.

Helena followed the signs spread through-out the camp to find her tent and after helping the other students find their assigned tents. After putting their things away the students went to the center fire pit to meet the teachers and student counselors. Taking their seats that were placed in a circular formation Mr. Medulla addressed the crowd of giddy children. “Attention…um attention may I have your attention?” The students were still chatting among themselves when a large bright flame shot high into the air.

“Shut it you little twerps!” Warren had his arm still in the air when everyone went silent and looked in his direction.

“Thank you Warren for that unique method. Hello children, I am Mr. Medulla. I am the science teacher at Sky High and Warden of this camp. You already met Warren Peace to my left to my right is Mrs. Stronghold and next to her is Mr. Boy. Next to Warren is Helena Wayne and to the back are the other student counselors Will and Leila. We have few rules in this camp and they are here for your safety, the first of these rules is nobody of the opposite gender is allowed in your tents. Ms. Wayne can smell it when a shape shifter tries to change into a boy or a girl so don’t try it Rule number two, no going out after dark. We are in the woods, there are wild animals and no matter how powerful you think you are a bear can kill most of you in an instant. Other than that we have plenty of fun planned so go with your student counselors and let’s get ready for dinner.”

Warren, Helena, Leila, Will, Mrs. Stronghold, and Mr. Boy each led a group of 20 students into the mess tent. Everything was going smoothly with the entire student class. Bonds were being made between students as Helena and Warren were talking about their old memories of when they first went to Sky High.

 After dinner the students and counselors went back to the fire ring to tell camp stories and it was Mr. Medulla’s turn to tell his scary story. It was about a failed chemical experiment, “…and what did I find when I mixed the two chemical together? The two had an unstable property that gave me a negative effect!” Putting his arms up in the air like it was a scary climax, but all the students did were look at each other and him in silence. “Don’t you get it? They didn’t-nothing happened-“Medulla scanned the students and then sat down as Mrs. Stronghold stood up and clapped which was followed by a scant amount of clapping from the crowd

“Thank you Mr. Medulla for that harrowing tale of two unstable chemicals. Okay ladies and gentlemen it is time for us to retire to your tents. If you would please follow your respective leaders back they will show you where the restroom facilities are. Have a good night and we will see you all tomorrow.”

“Have fun with your kids Warren and try not to burn any of them.” Medulla quipped as he left the fire ring. Warren gave him a sneer as Helena walked up to him.

“He sure likes to mess with you doesn’t he?” Helena put her right hand on his left shoulder as they both watch Medulla usher away.

“Yeah, he’s a jerk but at least he means well, I guess. Let’s get these twerps to their tents, I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow, okay?” Looking both ways he gave her a quick kiss and a wink before walking to his group. Helena smiled as she did a quick spin around and walked to her group.

As soon as everyone was asleep Helena stood outside her tent and looked at the stars. She felt the urge to see Warren but didn’t want to get him in trouble so she decided to do a little free running through the giant redwood trees in the park. Grabbing her night vision goggles Helena slipped out of camp and into the forest. Using her climbing skills she reached the nearest branch and leaped from one to another. Helena felt so alive and had nearly forgotten the thrills of free running through trees she started to laugh to herself.

Landing on a large branch Helena looked back to see how far camp was and then looked at the moon. It was full and cast its light everywhere she could see. Taking a deep breath Helena turned to jump to a new branch when she was kicked from behind. As she fell to the ground Helena frantically tried to grab anything to stop her fall but all her hands could grab was lichen and moss. Landing with a thud Helena quickly rolled to the side, coughing she held her left side when the sound of feet behind landing her caught her attention. Standing there woman resting her hands on her hips and a smile spread across her face. Laughing she stepped out into the moonlight and Helena saw that she was Cheetah, the self-proclaimed queen of the cats.

“ _You_ defeated Bane, this little kitten that lies shaking before me? The concept is laughable and to know you are Selina’s daughter makes me sick! How could you defeat Bane when you couldn’t tell I was stalking you?” Cheetah’s yellow cat eyes pulled in the moonlight while focusing her gaze on Helena.

“Why do you care if I defeated him, what was he your boyfriend or something?” Helena coughed as she scans the ground for some kind of make-shift weapon while keeping an eye on her.

Growling Cheetah moved with lightning speed and punched Helena then kicked her into a tree,” He was a colleague and the strongest only to Solomon Grundy himself. I can’t understand how you defeated him.” Grabbing Helena by the collar of her shirt and pulling her close, “ _Tell me_!”

Helena grabbed her hands and growled, “If I tell you I’ll have to kill you!” She then head-butted Cheetara who let her go and now Helena was on the offensive. Grabbing a couple of nearby sticks she hammered her feline opponent until the sticks broke.

Cheetara used her speed to her advantage and returned with some well-placed punches that knocked Helena back as she tried to deflect each strike but Cheetah was much more skilled in fighting and soon had Helena on her back. Standing over her Cheetah screamed, “What kind of weapon did you use?” she punched Helena, “How did he get cut up, did you use a knife on him?” She went to punch her again when Helena stopped the punch with her right hand, but this time her hand had long, sharp claw erupting from her gloves.

With a kick and a throw Cheetah crashed against a tree and what she saw next answered all her questions. Standing before her was Aneleh, her eyes glowing brightly as a low growl floated in the air. “So that’s it. You transformed into that? How dare you take on the guise of the cat, I am the _Queen_ of all felines!” Cheetah ran at Aneleh but she disappeared before Cheetah’s eyes causing her to stop in her tracks. A sudden punch to her left side of Cheetahs spun her sideways into the bushes.  Quickly standing up she could hear the low growls of Aneleh as she circled Cheetara, “This is impossible! Nobody is faster than me! I will Ki-“before she could finish her words Cheetah found herself being carried up a tree by her throat and dangling out from a tall branch by Anelehs left arm. Surprise and anger filled her as a toothy snarl came across Aneleh’s face.

Just as she was about to drop her prey Aneleh swayed and then covered her face and erupted into a roar so primal it echoed through entire forest, then Helena’s voice came through. “No, I won’t let you kill her Aneleh. Give me back my body!” With a final scream Helena looked at Cheetah who was still dangling in the air. “Why-did you attack me, who sent you?”

“I wanted to see how you defeated him and now I know.”  Quickly freeing herself from Helena’s grip she fell through the canopy. “Beware little cat for the coming doom!” Cheetah’s voiced echoed as Helena heard a thud then a quick succession of footsteps running north.

Helena rested against the tree as she sat on the branch. What did she mean by the coming doom?


	2. Compromise

Helena staggered back into camp right before dawn. Her fight and transformation had taken a toll on her energy. While she wasn’t physically hurt she didn’t have the energy to free run back to camp and it took almost all night to return. As she neared the fire circle Warren came around a tent and saw her slowly moving by, “Helena, why are you up so early? Wanted to get a jump on the day?” 

“Not exactly, I need to talk to you.” Sitting on a nearby chair she exhaled as she leaned forward and rested her head in her hands. 

“What’s wrong, did something happen?” sitting next to her he took her left hand and felt she was ice cold so he made his hands warm up so she would stop shivering. 

“I decided last night after to go free running in the giant redwoods -“ 

“You what? It’s not safe in the woods by yourself Helena, what were you thinking?” Letting go of her hand he stood up and clenched his fists in anger. 

“Will you keep your voice down? It’s not time for the kids to wake up. Sit down-now!” Helena whispered as she grabbed his hand and pulled him back to his chair. “I didn’t think there was anything wrong with running by myself since we defeated SCUM and I needed the exercise.” 

“What are you getting at? “ Warren was becoming annoyed with her story. 

“I was resting on a tree branch looking at the moon when I was attacked from behind.  As I fell from the tree I saw a form followed me down. When I landed the form came into the moonlight, she was a woman but she was covered in cheetah spots and long blond hair.” The look in her eyes was stern as she stared at Warren. 

“She was the Cheetah? Why did she attack you?” she could feel his heart rate increase as she held his hand, he knew this woman. 

“Yes, she said that was her name. She kept hitting me and wanted to know how I could have defeated Bane then-“ Her eyes searched for a memory, “Aneleh took control of me, she beat the crap out of her and she would have killed her if I hadn’t regained control. As I held her by the neck I demanded why she attacked me, she said she needed to know and now she did. She then freed herself and fell to the ground, but gave me a warning. ‘Prepare for the coming doom.’” 

‘Wait, did she say doom?” Warren looked deep into her eyes, his brow furrowed as he contemplated her words. 

“Yes, do you know her? Why was she warning me about a coming doom?” she leaned in close to him, she could smell that unforgettable aroma that drove her crazy. 

“Didn’t your mother ever mention her?” whispering he looked around the area. “She wasn’t prophesizing your doom. She is a member of an elite criminal organization, the Legion of Doom.” 

Her heart skipped a beat as she leaned back in her chair, “The what? You gotta be kidding me! I pissed of _another_ criminal organization?” her voice carried through the area as a few kids yelled at them to be quiet. 

“Calm down Helena, and yes it appears your streak for pissing bad guys off is still intact. These guys aren’t any ordinary criminals. They are on par with the Justice League and for them to want you out of the picture is serious business. We need to tell your father about this.” Pulling a communicator out of his jacket he was about to punch a button when Helena stopped him. 

“Whoa wait! My father? He’s going to kill me when he find out I’m in trouble again.” Panic filled her eyes as Warren removed her hand. 

“It’s either him or the legion Helena.”  He glared at her as she let go of the com device. 

“I’m not so sure which is more intimidating.” Crossing her arms she stood up and walked away as Warren contacted Bruce.

“Bruce, we have a problem.” His voice was hesitant as he explained the situation as she stood silently and listened to their conversation, “Understood we will keep you informed if something else comes up.” Putting the com device away he turned to her, “Bruce said he will look into the situation. You need to get some rest before the runts get up. I’ll cover for you until I need you. “ 

Helping her stand up he escorted her to her tent.  Helena didn’t even get undressed as she collapsed on her cot falling fast asleep. As she slept she began to dream about the fight when she suddenly found herself standing in front of Aneleh’s house. Standing in the open doorway her alter ego stood with arms crossed and an angry look on her face, “ _Why_ did you stop me? She was a threat and I needed to eliminate any threat to us.” A low growl could be heard as she walked out onto the lawn and began pacing in front of Helena, her gaze never breaking. 

“I’ve told you before sister, until you are willing to compromise with me you cannot come out. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate your help but until you want to cooperate with me you cannot come out.”  Following Aneleh as she paced faster in the yard then she stopped and faced her. 

“I told you I want control of the body and if you won’t give it to me, I’ll have to _take_ it!” Growling louder she slowly walked towards Helena who began to back up, she could feel her heart-rate increase. 

“Don’t do this sister, I don’t want to fight.” Putting her hands up in a defensive position she could tell Aneleh wasn’t going to back down as she stopped for a moment. 

“This will be a battle for control, _sister._ If you are able to beat me I will allow you access to my strength. If I win you are to stay here-forever.” A smile crossed Aneleh’s face as she started to walk again then she ran at her. Leaping into the air she roared as she tried to attack Helena from above yet missed her as she did a backflip to dodge Aneleh’s sharp claws. Quickly continuing her attack she kept missing her mark by centimeters when she kicked her in the chest and elbowed her in the head threw her against the house. 

Staggering to her feet Helena knew she’d better fight with everything she had because she didn’t want to give control of her body to Aneleh.  “Okay, I see how you want it sister. I’ll play your game.” She ran at her sister and she generated her favorite batons, after all it is _her_ mind. The two met in the middle as Aneleh grabbed the batons while pushing her backwards only to be thrown by the giant electric shock they possessed. With a scream of pain she stood holding her wrists as she glared at Helena who held them out to the side.  Growling she resumed her attack as she dodged each baton while trying to get a hit in of her own, they knew each other’s moves too well it seemed. 

They stood staring at each other as they breathed heavy, they were an even match for each other but neither wanted to give in.  Then a thought came to her as to how to end this, “This looks like the end sister. There can be only one Queen.” Helena stood with a grim look on her face as Aneleh gave a low growl. They ran towards each other when Aneleh lunged at her but at the last moment Helena spun to the right and with her batons jammed them into her sisters back with the full force of the Tasers and slammed her to the ground. She quickly spun her over and sat on her as she held the batons under her chin as Aneleh tried to free herself, but then she stopped struggling and stared into Helena’s eyes. 

“It appears you are the better of the two of us sister. I will cooperate with you but keep this thought in mind. If I sense any weakness in you I will take the throne my queen.” Those words rang in her ears as she awoke to Warren sticking his head into the tent. 

“Hey, I need your help. Are you okay?” he could see she didn’t sleep well and he came into the tent and stood next to her. 

Looking up she gave him a smile, “I have settled things with her. She promised to cooperate with me from now on.” 

Warren smiled at the news and extended his right hand, “I’m glad you two worked that out. Medulla’s been asking for you and I’m running out of excuses. I’ve told your kids to meet us at the fire ring so let’s get moving.” They left the tent still holding hands and made their way to the fire ring which was half filled with 20 freshmen. 

They all stared at her as she stood in front of them, “Hello everyone, I am Helena Wayne your senior counselor. I am sorry for the lateness of my introduction, I was not feeling well this morning. I would like to extend my thanks to Warren for watching you up until now. So we have a lot to do if you will follow me we will go down to the creek and discuss what we see.”  The group stood up and followed her to the creek where they discussed the life cycle of the plants and animals. They discussed how the environment was affected by the actions of both the individual and the group.  

The day went by with the students learning crafts they can do with and without their powers and for the first time in a long time she felt that she could actually enjoy herself once more. At the end of the day when all the kids were in their tents she found herself staring up at the night sky and she wondered what the Legion of Doom had planned. She felt fear and uncertainty at the thought of fighting for her life but then images of Bruce, J’onn, Damien, Jae, and Warren flashed in her mind and she felt confident with their help she could face those fears head-on.  As she slept the world seemed at peace for the moment, but what did tomorrow hold?


	3. Heat Seeker

The weekend was soon over and the buses were lining up to load the students for their trip back home. As Helena stood by one of the busses she checked off each student on her list when the last student stood in front of her and handed her a letter. “What’s this?”

“A lady in leopard coat told me to give you this.” The student shrugged as he got onto the bus. Helena shot Warren a look at the adjacent bus and waved the letter.  As soon as the last student got on the bus he walked over to her and watched busses take off into the sky.

“What’s with the letter, some kid have a crush on you?” he grabbed the envelope and flipped it around before she grabbed it back.

“No, he said a lady in a leopard coat gave it to him.  Do you think it’s safe to open?” holding the envelope up to the sun and flipped it back and forth then sniffed. Looking at Warren she took a nail and opened the top of the envelope and pulled out the folded letter.

“What does it say?” Warren leaned over her shoulder as she read aloud.

“Hello kitten, I enjoyed our little talk the other night and I especially enjoyed meeting the real you!  I have a message for you. Don’t be a fool like your mother, join us or watch everyone you care about die before your eyes. The choice is yours, we await your reply.” Helena’s arms dropped as she turned to Warren with fear in her eyes, “What the hell are we going to do now?”

“We bring this to Bruce. He should know what to do since he has dealt with the Legion of Doom before.” Warren took the letter and put it in his jacket pocket as he put his left arm over her shoulders. The two began to walk back to their tents when an annoying voice came from behind them.

“Oh how nice, once the little ones are away you two can’t keep your hormone drenched hands off each other.” Medulla quipped as the two turned to face him. Warren kept his arm over her shoulder as she held onto his hand.

“Cool it Medulla, school doesn’t start until next week so I don’t want to hear your lectures.” He glared as Mr. Medulla slowly walked towards them with his hands behind his back and turned to face them.

“Mr. Peace don’t think me the fool, I heard the letter Ms. Wayne read. I have ears you know and I believe I can be of assistance to you and your father Ms. Wayne.” A small smirk crossed her face as he slowly twisted his shoulders left to right.

“How can you help me with this Mr. Medulla? No offenses but you have been a teacher for a long time.” Helena seemed a bit confused at Medulla’s request.

“Ms. Wayne, I’m not just a teacher all the time. Remember I am a Hero class super and I have had many missions in my career. I believe my extreme intellect can be of an asset to you and dare I say it exceeds that of your fathers. So yes I believe I can be of a great help in your situation.” Turning away he looked up at the sky with his hands still behind his back.

“Okay Mr. Medulla, I will tell my father you are willing to help us. We are actually going to see him now. did you want to come with us?

Medulla coughed as he quickly turned to her, “Um well I would love to but I am banned from Wayne Manor.”

Helena chuckled, “Banned, how did you do that?”

“Well it’s a long story but let’s just say when he says not to touch something it is always a good idea to heed that request.” His eyes shifted as he bounced on his feet from heel to toe.

‘Wait you’re saying that you are responsible for hole in the ceiling of the cave that went through the house and out the ceiling?” Warren laughed as Medulla squirmed.

“Well looks like I need to start taking down some tents, let me know what Mr. Wayne says.” Medulla quickly scurried away.

The two walked to an open field that Leila made into a makeshift landing strip for the Wayne jet to land. 

“Helena, did you want to come hang out before school starts? Now that nobody is hunting you I think we could have a girl’s night.” Leila grabbed her hand and came close to her.

“I’d love to Leila, let me call you tomorrow and we can set a day.” Smiling she knew she couldn’t make it. She didn’t want to tell her she was in danger again and she didn’t want to involve her.

“Hey Stronghold, c’mere.” Warren motioned to Will as they walked away from the girls. Helena saw him whisper something to him and he looked over his shoulder and back at Warren. Nodding the two turned around and he started to get onto the jet.

“Hey Leila we should probably help my mom get these tents down, let these two get back home.”  Will jumped into the sky and flew back in the direction of camp.

“Okay, have a safe flight back and don’t forget to call me.” Leila hugged her and turned to walk back to camp. She stopped and watched as Helena boarded the plane and waived as she closed the door behind her. As soon as the plane took off she could see the runway disappear and turn back into a natural forest.

“Do you think she’ll be upset when you can’t have your sleepover?” Warren spun his chair around as she sat with her legs crossed.

“She’ll understand if I tell her I went on a mission with Bruce, which may not be far from the truth in this case.  It’s so frustrating when you think you are safe and then crap like this pops up.” Looking out the window her eyes glistened as she tried to keep her emotions in check.

Warren leaned forward and grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. “Bruce will know what to do and maybe Medulla might be of some help. We’ll see what happens next I guess.”

The cockpit was open to the rest of the jet when alarms began to blare as the pilot came over the speakers.” We are under attack, missiles have been detected. Commencing evasive maneuvers please strap yourselves in.” Behind their headrests two additional seatbelts popped out that when connected formed a four piece harness.

Helena heard the engines get louder as the jet instantly gained speed pushing her back in the seat. She could see the flashes from the flares the jet ejected.  The alarms we consistent as the jet performed a couple barrel rolls trying to avoid being struck.

“How many missiles are we talking about?” Warren yelled over the noise of the alarms.

“Radar says five missiles left, I was able to destroy three with countermeasures. I have sent out a distress to Mr. Wayne. He should be here within moments.” The pilot responded calmly, his voice sounded familiar but Helena couldn’t pin it down.

Looking out her window again she could see a missile coming slowly along the left side of the jet and screamed. “There’s one coming close do something!” She grabbed the handles of her chair to brace herself for the impact when she saw tracer bullets fire on and destroy the missile quickly followed by a black blur of a jet. “It’s Bruce!” She smiled and looked at Warren and then looked out the window. She could see four more flashes before the Bat-jet came slowly alongside the jet, she could see Bruce in his Batman garb look at her and wink.

Following them back to the airport both jets taxied quickly into Bruce’s private hanger. When the plane stopped she leapt up and went to congratulate the pilot on his fantastic flying. “You are one badass pilot! Where did you learn to fly like that?”

“In Korea young Miss.” Taking off his headset he turned and faced her, this awesome pilot was her good friend.

“Alfred? _You_ did that? You-“Her voice cracked as she gave him a hug. He smiled and patted her back. She gave him a kiss on the cheek as she wiped a tear from her eye.

“No thanks are needed Helena, I would fight heaven and earth to make sure you are safe so don’t trouble yourself anymore. Come, your father is waiting.”  Gesturing with his left arm they all exited the jet and saw Bruce standing in full Batman gear.

“It appears the Legion has upped their efforts. Is everyone okay?” His voice was just as stern as always.

“Thanks to Alfred’s superior flying, you could learn some lessons from him.” Helena pointed over her shoulder with her left thumb.

“Who do you think taught me?” Walking to Warren he put his right hand out, “Let me see the letter.” Opening his jacket Warren took the letter out and Bruce held it up to the light. Tearing a corner off the letter he put the rest in a pocket in his cape while he held the small piece up and showed it to everyone. “This is why the missiles found you.”

“What is it?” Helena walked up and tried to get a good look at the paper, all she could see was a small black dot.

“It’s a tracking device, that’s how the missiles homed in on the jet. The letter was just a way for them to get a trace on you and blow you out of the sky. They look like they mean business this time and I’m going to bring them all down.” Bruce’s eyes narrowed as he let a low growl out as he spoke.

Helena could tell he was angry but then panic filled her soul, “Oh my God Bruce, to what extent will they go to get to me? Am I safe anywhere?”

Walking up to her he rested both hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes, “I swear that nothing is going to happen with you. You forget I am a member of the Justice League and members protect their own and their families. You’ll be safe from any harm, plus with Clark looking out for you as well as Warren they better bring some heavy guns to get within a mile of you.”

Helena hugged him tightly as emotions overwhelmed her. The creaking of his leather encased armor filled her ears. She then felt Bruce’s arms wrap around her and he gently hugged her in return before he pulled her back. Wiping a tear from her cheek she stood back and looked into his eyes which glistened with a touch of emotion before he quickly turned and got into the Bat-mobile.

“Alfred will take you back to the manor. I’ve got some hunting to do.” The canopy slid over his head and sealed down on the body of the car. The roar of the jet engine echoed in the hangar as his tires squealed when he drove away. Helena watched him until he was out of sight. As she turned around she saw Alfred stranding by the Bentley with the rear door open. Warren extended his left hand and she grabbed it with her right as they walked to the car and got in.

As they left the hanger and onto the main highway she squeezed Warrens hand as she looked out the window and contemplated her next move. Should she let the Justice League handle the Legion of Doom or should she take the fight to them?


	4. Big Things

Helena sat in her room and stared at the floor as her near death experience left her full of questions, fear, and doubts. Why did Cheetah attack her, give her that letter, and then try to kill her? What did she mean about not making the same mistake as her mother?

Just then J’onn came up through the floor and stood in front of her, he had a plate of Oreos and a glass of milk. “I heard about what happened at camp and on the jet. I brought you some comfort food to help calm your nerves.”

Taking the glass of milk and the Oreos Helena managed a smile, “Thanks J’onn for being considerate and all but I am on the verge of freaking out. They tried to kill me and that’s something I haven’t experience before. What am I supposed to do J’onn?  I can’t fight a whole legion of bad guys!”

“I can understand how you feel and I can tell you from experience that the thought of a whole army of individuals bent on your destruction can be-intimidating. However you have what I have-a support structure that is equally as powerful. So rest assured any attacks on you have to go through everyone in the Justice League first and that will not be an easy task.”  J’onn’s words made her feel better and she took a bite from a cookie then a drink of milk.

“I’ve been thinking about something in the letter. It said don’t make the same mistake my mother made, what do you think that means?” looking up at him she took another bite of the cookie.

“I can only offer a guess. Your mother is in prison after her capture for theft, she claims she was set up but the courts did not see it that way and sentenced her to 20 years. My suggestion is to speak with your mother and get the truth behind the lie. Take Warren with you at your father request.”

Surprised and confused she stood up,” Did he already anticipate me doing something like this?”

“Let’s just say he knows you well enough to anticipate your moves, after all you are _his_ daughter.” Dissolving into the floor he gave her a quick wink and left from sight.

The talk was what she needed and she walked next door to Warren’s room. Knocking he opened it, he was dressed in the clothes he wore at camp with the same dark gray jeans, dirty black tee, and muddy boots. “Tomorrow we are going to visit my mother so don’t make any plans for after school. I think she has some of the answers we are looking for.”

Warren had a look of surprised that changed to a smirk, “Okay sounds like fun, think she will be willing to see us?”

“Why not? She may be a thief but she’s still my mom and she isn’t a bad person she just has-issues.”

“Sounds like my dad but we all know that’s not the case, he is a walking issue. Okay I’ll see you at the jet bright and early tomorrow.” He closed the door as she smiled and turned around while she walked back to her room.

* * *

The next morning Helena met Warren and Jae at the jet to school, Jae looked slightly annoyed as he sat on the steps leading into the jet. “What’s going on Jae, why haven’t you loaded the jet?”

“Alfred’s loaded more counter measures and scanning the jet for tracking devices. Bruce wanted to make sure we don’t get a repeat of the other day.” Jae signed as he took a philosophy book from his bag and began to read.

“Where’s Damien, he’s going to miss the jet.” Looking around she heard Damien’s voice behind her.

“Don’t worry about me sis, I’m here. Why’s everyone sitting outside the jet?”  Looking around Helena he saw Alfred come back around the other side of the jet with a small hand held detector.

“Alright everyone, get onto the jet. We must not be late for the first day of class.” Extending his right arm the four of them boarded the plane as he followed behind them and closed the door. As he went into the cockpit Helena fastened her belt as she glanced over at Warren and back at Jae with a look of concern. Was she endangering her brother again with the Legion of Doom coming after her so soon after saving him?

“Hey, what’s that look about? Did I do something wrong?” Jae looked at her from the top of his book, he was always aware of his surroundings even nose deep in his readings.

“Oh it’s nothing just glad to see you again. By the way why are you on the jet going to Sky High again?” She just noticed this was the first time he was on the jet when it was taking her to school.

“I swear your memory is going Helena. I told you last week since I started 8th grade my school is having a field trip of Sky High so we can see what its like. I talked to my teacher and they said it was okay for me to fly in with you guys this morning, that is unless we get shot down.” Smirking he looked out his window then back to her.

“Don’t joke about that Jae, I don’t ever want to experience something like that again.” Helena snapped at his attempt to lighten the mood.

Putting his book down his face went stern, “Then drop out of Sky High and go hide in a deep hole. If you don’t want to confront the dangers that all the other supers face every day then you are in the wrong profession. Don’t you think that any of them haven’t come face to face with death and not thought once about giving up? No, they can’t give up because they know there are three types of people in the world, the good guys, the bad guys, and everyone else. Every hero faces the same odds and they do it every day because they are the only ones between the public and the people bent on their destruction.”

Helena, Warren, and Damien all sat in silence as they looked at Jae in amazement. It was over 30 second before she managed to speak, ”Um okay wow Jae, you surprise me every day. You are right I was being unrealistic and maybe I wasn’t really prepared for the caliber of this new enemy. Thank you for your pep talk.”

“Hey pipsqueak how’d you get so smart?” Warren leaned forward in his chair with his gaze fixed on his younger brother.

“When you read as much philosophy, morality tales, and the works of the supers past and present you develop an understanding of what a hero really is about” he went back to his reading as Alfred’s voice came over the intercom.

“We will be landing in moments please face forward everyone and prepare for landing.” The sound of landing gear lowering could be heard and lock into place with a thud.  Helena looked out the window and saw the school passing by as Alfred made his approach for landing. Soon the familiar bouncing of the plane landing lead to the reversing of the jet engines as they slowed to a crawl as it turned around coming to a stop.

Warren got up and faced everyone before he addressed the group, “Okay I wanted to say something to everyone and you’re not going to like it but Bruce has assignments for all of you, even Jae.”

“He what?” Jae put his book down is disbelief.

“As you know Helena has been marked by the Legion of Doom and we are all assigned to watch her at home, at school, walking to the store, everywhere. He already has the other League members watching the school from the orbiting station.” His gaze was fixed on Helena as he spoke to them.

“What about Athena, why isn’t she on the jet this morning?” Damien stood up and started looking out the windows. He saw her standing by the steps with Diana. A small crowd started to form around the two when from over top the jet and landing next to them appeared Superman and Carrie. “It seems we have some heavy hitters visiting the school this morning.” Damien pointed out the window as they all looked at the growing crowd.

“Okay let’s get out of here and get this day over.”  Warren turned and opened the door and exited the plane followed by Helena, Damien, and Jai. The group walked through the crowd and up to Superman, Diana, Athena, and Carrie.

“Hello everyone, I trust you had a nice flight in. Helena how are you?” Superman rested her hand on her left shoulder.

Even gently resting his hand felt heavier than normal supers, “I’m good, just excited to get my first day over.  What brings you two here today?” looking at the four standing on the steps she had an idea but didn’t let on she knew.

“We-wanted to see Athena and Carrie got to school early. Besides it’s always good to see all the new faces.” Pulling Helena aside the two walked down the main hall followed by the crowd of students.  Superman lowered his voice and leaned down, “I wanted to let you know that Diana and I will be watching over the school during the day. Even if I can’t always be here I will know if something happens.”

“I appreciate that Clark, but you have a lot more pressing issues than to babysit me.” Helena looked up into his blue eyes, they reminded her of Bruce’s but less stern.

“Don’t worry, as I said I have a way of knowing if something happens.” Pointing upward he smiled.

“You mean the orbiting station, isn’t that where J’onn is?” Her spirits picked up as she knew her old friend would be watching from high above.

“So enjoy your day at school and rest assured you are safe.” As he smiled he turned and made his way back to the door signing autographs as he eventually flew away.

Warren along with Athena, Jai, Damien, and Carrie walked next to her as they pulled out their schedules and compared classes. All except for Jai who was looking around wide eyed at the interior of the main hall.

“Hey sis, can you point me in the direction of the library? I told my teacher I’d wait for her there.” Jai gave an excited yet composed look as Helena pointed to the east.

“Go down that hall and to the right, second set of double doors-“before she could finish he was already down the hall and rounding the corner.

“I think someone is going to enjoy coming here next year.” Carrie laughed as the first bell rang. Warren and Helena had their classes matched up on purpose it seemed. She suspected Bruce had something to do with it even if Warren already took senior physics.

The first class was advanced mechanics with Mr. Medulla.  As they sat in the back desks Medulla scurried in and put a box of miscellaneous parts. As he scanned the class he counted each one silently to himself while pointing at each student.  When he saw Helena and Warren he smiled and gave them thumbs up. “Alright class welcome to advanced mechanics. In this class you will learn how to construct a force shield from the parts in this box.  I will give you each the same components which will include, “ reaching into the box he pulled out two hollow copper tubes, a wire mesh screen , a small roll of stereo wire, batteries, and a large crystal. “You will use these to create a force shield capable of repelling a level five laser blast, and it needs to be done within this class period.”

A collective groan came from the class as Medulla passed out the components to each student. Helena started to build her project when she noticed Warren was almost done and it was only ten minutes since they were given the parts. “How are you building that so fast?”

“I took this class last year remember? Besides it’s not that hard when you take the time to look at it, your wires are crossed.”  Glancing at her project he pointed with his left index finger as he added the finishing touches to his project.

Looking down at hers and then his shield generator she noticed he was right and quickly fixed her mistake.  Ten minutes before the end of class most the students were done when Medulla had them line each against the wall. “Okay let’s test these monstrosities and we shall begin with Kevin’s.” Taking aim with his laser gun he shot and destroyed the shield generator. “As expected someone cheated off the wrong person. Now we shall test Mr. Peace’s device.” Taking aim he fired and the laser was deflected and it shot out the window. “Well very nice Mr. Peace I-“

A large explosion rocked the school as Medulla looked at his gun in confusion. Warren and Helena ran to the window and saw smoke coming from the direction of the library followed by similar sized explosions in the hallway leading to the main entrance. “It’s Jai, c’mon!” Warren grabbed Helena’s hand as they ran towards Jai.

As they came around the corner they say Jai running as fast as he could to them followed by two larger students. They looked very angry as he ran and hid behind Helena, she could see they were scorched by the blue flames Jai produced. “What did you do Jai?” Helena looked at him as he kept his gaze on his new friends.

“Nothing, I was waiting in the library reading a few books when those two gorillas started to harass me. Kept asking me if Warren was my brother and finally I had it with their consistent questions so I told them I didn’t have time for such inane conversations with a couple of Neanderthals. I guess they figured out I was insulting them.”

“Ya’ think?” Warren stood between them and the two larger students. “Why don’t you guys calm down before Principle Powers of Boomer show up. There has already been enough damage done to the school already.”

“Your brother has a mouth on him Peace, we are pretty sure he insulted us and he can’t do that to us.” The larger student grew angry with every word.

“Calm down Terry, you and Tim just need to understand he reads a lot of books and uses big words you may not understand.” Warren crossed his arms as he let out a small smile.

“Who are these guys?” Jai stood next to Helena as he watched Warren talk to them.

“That’s Terry and Tim, we call them the juggernaut twins. Not very smart when they get mad but once they get going they can’t be stopped. They have a thing against Warren since he was the only one to stop them, aside from Principle powers, when they went on their last rampage and never forgot it.” Helena rested her left arm on Jai’s shoulders.

“When was that?” Jai looked as his brother stood his ground.

“Freshman year as the story goes. Like I said they may be dumb but have long memories.”

“ _What is going on here?_ ” a loud voice came from behind Helena and Jai as they turned and saw Coach Boomer standing with his clipboard. His hands rested on his hips as everyone but Warren turned around.

“These-meatheads attacked my brother and he was defending himself.” Helena stood in front of Jai who peaked at Coach Boomer from behind her. Boomers gaze was intimidating as he shifted from Jai to Warren.

“I suppose you had nothing to do with this Warren?” Still holding his clipboard he folded his arms when Mr. Medulla stood next to him.

“No Boomer he was in my class when the debacle occurred. It is as she says they both were in my class testing out a class project.” Medulla winked at Jai and looked back at Boomer.

“Huh, well okay but someone has to be held accountable for this mess and since Hothead Jr isn’t going to this school yet I got to take Tweedle Duma Dum Tweedle Dee with me.” As he walked past Jai he stopped and leaned down giving him a hard stare. “Just remember I’m going to keep my eye on you next year so watch yourself or I’ll make sure you stay a sidekick forever.”

Boomer grabbed Terry and Tim their ears he dragged them down the hallway as Jai stood there with a frightened look on his face. “Don’t let him intimidate you his bark is worse than his boom.” Warren patted him on the back and escorted him to the office to wait for his teacher.


	5. D.O.O.M. did what?

_Okay I know you’re wondering why you haven’t heard from me recently. Well, it’s because I’ve been in the woods for the past two weeks. You know what they don’t have in the woods? That’s right electricity and frankly my tablet doesn’t have the batter life to last two weeks so I left it at home. However, I was an idiot and left the blasted thing off its charger, so it was dead when I got home anyway. Yeah, talk about being disappointed with having to leave it on the jet so it could charge when it tried to turn it on this morning. I frankly was too out of it the night before to even pick it up._

_So, in case you want to know what new horror has been unleashed in the two weeks I disappeared from society, let me tell you. Doom, yes that legendary crime organization the Legion of Doom. Again I reiterate, who comes up with these names anyway? I think it calls for an acronym, but what the heck could D.O.O.M. stand for? Other than Disturbing, Obnoxious, Old, Men, I mean do they all have to have their Depends in a bunch, really? I guess it’s not really a laughing matter, but I’m just tired of being afraid or in shock that I’m on some hit list. Yeah, apparently they want me to join them or die. Well, that’s one hell of an incentive package. Oh and I’m left to wonder what the hell my mother had to do with these guys. Well, Warren and I should be finding that out soon, since we’re currently on our way to a high level maximum security prison on an island off the East Coast._

_On another note, I’m totally proud of the ass kicking skills Jae’s already exhibiting. Then again the Juggernaut twins, Tim and Terry, don’t understand the concept that blue flames are hotter than red, orange, or yellow ones. I mean come on, if they had brains, they would’ve left him alone after he blew up the Library. Yep, he’s got a long way to go but apparently he can already produce firepower more powerful than Warren, you know just at higher temperatures. It’s a good thing he’s sweet or he might actually have the power to take over the world. Um, well I see a large and rather disturbing bright white fortress coming into view, and one can guess by the electrical barbed wire on top that it must be my mother’s new home. Don’t worry I won’t forget to charge my tablet again and I’ll be back soon to update you on our adventure to the land of OZ, where one never wishes to drop the soap. Hmm, I wonder if there was a reason why Bruce requested I take Warren with me. Nah, it couldn’t possibly mean-_  

Helena didn’t even finish typing her thought before she had to set her tablet down because the jet had landed. No electronics were allowed inside the walls of the prison. So, she would once again have to part with her beloved tablet computer.  She took a deep breath and stood with Warren. The two of them exited the plane and prepared for the truths they hoped to find out shortly. 

The prison looked like a future city of a sort. It was a vast complex of white towers that seemed to soar into the sky like the tips of spears.  As they walked to a set of large doors they were greeted by two very large security guards, both looked at Warren with disgust as one spoke. 

“Can we help you?” The guards deep voice sounded like it came from a dark pit of hate and anger as his eyes narrowed on Helena. 

“Yes, I am Helena Wayne and this is my friend and bodyguard Warren Peace. We have made arrangements to meet with my mother Celina Kyle.” Helena looked back defiantly into the guards eyes. 

Looking at his clipboard his eyes went wide then they shot a look at the other guard and motioned with his head. The other guard stopped staring at Warren and turned to walk to the main gate. “Of course Ms. Wayne, forgive our actions this is a prison after all. Follow Officer Hogan down the hall into the visitor’s room.” His tone changed to one of respect once he realized who she was, the large door buzzed as Officer Hogan walked through followed by Warren and Helena. 

“I never thought I’d walk willingly into this place.” Warren whispered to her as they went down the white hall. 

“Well unlike everyone else in here you get to walk out so take comfort in that.” She winked at him as she turned back to the guard in front of them. “How does the prison ensure nobody escapes Officer Hogan?” 

‘Simple, Ms. Wayne. This whole complex is one large suppression room. Mr. Peace couldn’t light a fly on fire right now even if he tried.” Hogan's deep voice echoed in the hall. Stopping at a door he pushed a button to open it. “You will wait here your visitors will be here shortly.” 

Walking in they sat down on a couch against the wall and the door closed and locked. “What did he mean by ‘visitors’?” Warren asked as he sat back in the couch. 

“Beats me, I only wanted to see my mother. Maybe he-“The door at the opposite end of the room opened and in stepped Selina Kyle and Barron Battle. They were both dressed in white jumpsuits and a shock bracelet on their right hands. The shock of seeing him almost floored Helena because he looked so much like Warren but with curly hair. 

“ _What the hell is this_?” Warren stood up and made a motion to light his flames but nothing happened.

“Hello son, long time. Don’t even try to light up in here it won’t work so sit down.” Barron folded his arms and smirked as he sat down in a chair near the door. 

“Don’t call me son you don’t get the _right_ to call me son.” Warren’s face grew red as he focused on his father when Helena touched his right shoulder. 

“Warren calm down, Bruce must have done this. There has to be a reason.” Her gaze went to Baron as he sat in the chair smiling. 

“Oh so it was Bruce who arranged for this, how like him.  That man always has a plan in motion somewhere. Oh Helena darling I missed you so much, what brings you here?” Selina hugged her as they sat down on the couch. 

“Well mother I have something I need to tell you and I have some questions to ask you.” Helena went into the tale of what happened with SCUM and her brother Jai.  She saw her mother’s eyes fill with tears as she told her about Aneleh and the defeat of Bane. 

“Holy hell kitty cat, your daughter is quite the hero, by the way did I ever tell you how hot you look in white?” Baron smiled and wiggled his eyebrows. 

“Now is not the time Baron, save the perversions for your cellmate Lefty Palmer.” Selina shot him a spiteful glare as she turned back to Helena. “So why have you come to see me? It appears you took care of your problems.” 

“You ever hear the phase, ‘when one door closes another opens’? Well I opened a big door mom and it had DOOM written all over it.” Her eyes fixed on her mother as she saw the recognition of her statement. 

Barron sat up in his chair as his face went stern. He stood quickly and turned his back to everyone as he was thinking about what he just heard. 

“Doom you say? Dammit I never thought they would go after you, more like hoped they wouldn’t. They are the reason why I and Mr. Charming are in here.” Selina grabbed Helena’s hands as she leaned forward. 

‘What do you mean the reason why you and Baron are in here?” Warren demanded as he turned back to his father. 

“The Legion was recruiting back then and they were ‘auditioning’ us by assigning me and her to a little job. I wasn’t too sure about the job but went along to watch over her.” Barron turned and faced all of them. 

“I was to steal some files that Justice League had on local Doom members. So I invited myself into the Justice League headquarters to gain access to those files.” Selina let go of Helena’s hands and sat back in the couch. 

“Wait, you mean you were thinking about _joining_ them? Why would you do that mom?” Helena’s voice cracked a little as her eyes glistened. 

“When you have a family to raise and not a stellar work history you take what you can get, so don’t judge me. Everything I did was for you Helena, but if it makes you feel better I had a change of heart and was going to put the data back when Diana found me in the vents. I had to fight my way out of that place but when I got out The Commander and Jetstream already had Barron tied up and the place was a mess.” 

“Is that when you went nuts and killed those people Baron?”  Warren quipped as his father spun around at his comment.

“I didn’t kill anyone Warren. I saw Heat Wave run across the backside of the Hall of Justice and I followed him. He attacked me and we had a fire on fire fight but he started shooting randomly at homes and cars catching them on fire. I tried to stop him but he got away. I heard people yelling in a home and I ran into the building to see if I could save them but the house was too engulfed. I stood out in the street screaming for help when I was scooped up and detained by that big Boy Scout.”

“Didn’t you try to tell him what happened?” Helena seemed rather annoyed at what she heard. 

“Yeah I told him but he didn’t see anyone else but me in the middle of those fires. We were set-up because we refused to play their games. Now here we sit in the lap of luxury twenty four hours a day for the rest of our lives.” Baron extended his arms as he sat back down and folded his arms. 

“But why are they after me, why use could I be?” 

“Maybe its Aneleh or maybe they think you know where I hid those files. Whatever their reasons you both need to be very careful from here on out. They will know you have been here and talked to us, but I am going to you some leverage.” Selina smiled. 

“What kind of leverage?” Helena was intrigued by what her mother suggested, what did she mean?

“I know you have free run of the Hall of Justice and I will tell you where those files are hidden.” Leaning in she whispered into her ear where she could find the files. 

“I know that spot, but what good will the files do for me?” 

“I didn’t download the files they wanted. I downloaded all known Legion hideouts that even the League didn’t know of. You get a hold of that disc and give that to Bruce the Legion is done for good.” 

“Are you serious? No wonder they want that information, they know that can’t get out to the league. We gotta get that before they find a way to get it themselves.” Warren exclaimed. 

The door that Selina and Baron came in opened and a guard came in. “Visiting time is over, back to your cells.” 

Selina and Helena stood up and gave each other a hug and Baron stood up and walked out the room without giving Warren a second glace. As the door closed Selina winked and smiled at Warren which looked like it embarrassed him. The door behind them opened and Officer Hogan stood in the doorway and extended his arm down the hall. 

 

The walk back to the plane was silent other than the echoes of their steps in the hall. As the main gate opened the brightness of the sun gave the hall a new feeling of hope. As the jet took off Helena wondered if she had a chance to turn this situation around with the information on the disc.


	6. You Knew?

_Well it was a good thing that room, hell the entire building was under a power suppressant field, because with two pissed off pyros that room would’ve gotten hot pretty quick. Yep, Daddy did another surprise attack and threw Warren’s father into the mix as well. To say my hot piece of man flesh wasn’t happy with the surprise was an understatement. If looks could kill, Barron would’ve been dead twice over. Though I do have to admit, if Warren ages like his father- well you get the point, right? I shouldn’t have to finish that statement._

_Yeah, we’re on the jet heading back to Gotham. He’s got one of those pensive looks on his face as he stares out the window, I can tell he’s processing the information. He might be hiding behind a stoic mask of indifference but I can tell he’s pretty shook up. How would you feel if you just found out the past few years have all been a lie? That the anger you had for your father not being in your life wasn’t his fault and all of that crap you went through growing up labeled the son of a villain when he was innocent all along. His world was just turn on its head just like mine, when I discovered my mother’s change of heart at the last moment. Damn it! I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do! I’m just so conflicted right now, I have to put this down for a bit I need to think._  

Helena sighed as she set down her laptop. Their visit continued to replay in her mind as she turned to stare out her window. Warren remained silent and she was sure if she looked over at him he’d still be staring out his window, it was quite the bombshell. Soon the airport came into view and within minutes they were on the ground and taxiing into the private Wayne hangar.  Both she and Warren quietly left the jet, still no words were said as they got into the Bentley. Soon Alfred was driving them home when Helena broke the silence. 

“So I think we need to talk to Bruce. He set up this meeting and I suspect he knows something he isn’t telling us.” Resting her right elbow on the door rest, she rested her head against her hand. 

“If it’s all the same I’d rather you ask him what he knows. I’ll go with you but you do the talking, I don’t have the words right now. I’m too angry to speak rationally.” He didn’t look at her as he continued to stare out the window. 

As the car winded up the manor drive her heart skipped a beat as she knew it wasn’t going to be easy to confront Bruce about what he knew. When the car pulled up to the front door Warren got out and walked to her side of the car and opened the door. 

“Young Miss, please understand that Master Bruce has his reasons for withholding information. He is a very brilliant man and he knows what he is doing. “Alfred turned and gave her a smile. 

“I know Alfred, I know.” She smiled as she stepped out of the car and walked inside with Warren closing the front door behind her. They made their way to the secret entry to the Batcave and down the long stairs. As they entered the cave they saw Bruce at his computer monitoring the news and police radio when he turned his head to look at them. His expression did no change as his blue eyes followed them down the rest of the stairs.

“How was your visit?” the sternness of his voice echoed in the cave as he turned his chair to face them. 

“Yeah about that, Warren had a little issue seeing his father without warning and let’s just say it made the visit that much more interesting.” Helena stood in front of Bruce as Warren stood back with an angry look on his face. 

“So, I take it she told you about the disk?” leaning back in his chair his gaze was fixed as both she and Warren looked at him with surprise. 

“You knew? How did you know?”  Helena took a step forward as Warren turned and stood beside her. 

“Please, Selina and I have a long history and when I heard she was involved I knew where she would have hid it. It wasn’t until after we read the disk that we knew it had all the Doom agents’ information. She left it to be found because she knew the importance. She may have gotten away after Diana found her but she can’t stay hidden for long.” Taking a drink from his teacup he had on a small table he shifted his gaze to Warren. 

“What about Barron, did you know about him?” Warren’s voice waivered with restrained anger as he clenched his fists. 

“Yes.” His cold response seemed to anger Warren more. 

“And you did nothing when you knew he was innocent?” his hands began to glow when Helena stood and looked into his face. 

“Calm down Warren, let’s hear him out.” Resting her left hand on his chest, she turned to Bruce. 

“When we found out Heat Wave was responsible for the fires and deaths we were going to immediately release him. However he _chose_ to go to jail.” 

“What do you mean he chose to go to jail? Why would he choose to be locked away and given three life sentences?” Warren unclenched his hands as he stood in disbelief.

“Your father knew that Doom would try again and if he was allowed to walk free it was to put you in danger as well. He wanted to see Doom taken down but for them to believe the frame-up worked he would have had to been caught and convicted of the fires and deaths.” Holding his teacup he took another sip. 

Helena looked at Warrens visibly shaken face as he took a step back and turned around for a moment before facing Bruce again. 

“So all of it, the battle with the Commander, the hate I had for both my father and anything to do with him was all for nothing? My whole life has been a lie.” Turning he walked quickly up the stairs and out of sight. 

“Warren wait!” Helen started to walk after him when she was stopped by Bruce’s commanding voice. 

“Let him go. He needs to work it out for himself, trust me. We have a few more things to discuss about your mother and the disk.” Standing up he set his teacup on the small table and walked to a wall safe. 

“What about it? The League has it now and probably made a copy of it. What else can I do?”

Turning she rested her hands on her hips “I don’t want a repeat of last time with what happened with SCUM and Bane so I am sending you to the orbiting station. You will do your classes via video conference with a scrambled signal.” Handing her the disk she looked it over front and back. 

‘So why give me this? As far as the space station goes I don’t know how happy Warren will be floating in an airless vacuum.” 

“He’s not going.” Crossing his arms he gave his usual stern reply. 

Helena’s face expressed shock and sadness,” What? H-he’s my bodyguard you can’t separate us like that! No he’s going with me!” 

Bruce walked and put his hands on both shoulders. As he looked down his eyes beaned  hard but his voice softened a bit,” I know you two have become close and he is a good man but I need him here with us. You can video conference with him from the station but he needs to stay here.” 

Resting her head down on his chest she began to weep,” But why do you need him more than me?” 

“I can’t go into detail but Doom has increased its attacks at key military sites. I suspect something big is going to happen but there isn’t much proof. Warren is good in a fight and I can’t risk your _sister_ coming out and putting you in harm’s way. You will be safe on the station if something goes down, besides J’onn lives there most the time and the facility is loaded with Martian tech.”

“When do I leave?” Her head still rested on his chest as he put his hand on the back of her head.

“Tomorrow.” His reply was quiet and soft as he lifted her head to see her face. Wiping the tears off, he gave her a small smile. 

“Tomorrow, can I tell him good-bye?” sniffling a tear ran down her cheek as she stood back. 

“You can spend the evening with him. If he has any questions he knows where to find me.” Bruce turned and stood in front of his computer terminal. 

Helena’s emotions started to build as the thought of being away from Warren flooded her mind when she felt light headed and staggered a bit before regaining her balance. “What if I don’t _want_ to leave? You want keep him away from _me!_ I won’t go. You can’t make me!” Her voice growled as her eyes glared at Bruce. 

Turning his head he slowly faced her and noticed her eyes were different, she had her claws out and her hair had grown longer. Anger swarmed her face as she stared at him while tears still fell from her eyes. “Hello Aneleh, I was wondering when you would show up.” 

“Hello _Daddy_.” Her voice oozed with sarcasm as she clenched her fist and a low growl came from her throat. 

“What are you doing out of your house, you made a deal with Helena not to come out.”  Folding his arms he stared at her with his powerful gaze. He was not a man easily frightened and he wasn’t going to back down from her. 

“Why are you taking him from me? You gave him to us and allowed us to be with him and now you take him from me? I won’t let you. I’ll fight you for him!”  She slowly began to crouch down as her growling grew louder when she stopped and her eyes went wide. 

“Don’t try it, I have experience taking cat’s down. Remember this?” In his hand he held her electronic stun baton, it crackled with bright blue electricity as he pointed it at her. “Now I want you to listen to me and remember my words, there is going to be an attack. I don’t know when but I do know that they are going to come after you-“

“Let them try, I’ll gut all of them like that big idiot at the zoo.” Her eyes narrowed as she held her ground. 

“And that’s why I am sending you to the station. If you are down in the middle of a fight with that many Doom members you will be easily overwhelmed. They have years of experience and you will be better served protecting the station with J’onn.” Turning off the baton he tucked it back under his arm. 

“Protect the station? What do you mean?” Slowly standing up she had a curious look  as she he turned back to his computer. 

“With you and the disk on the station, I suspect they will come after you there. That is where you will have the advantage. It's a smaller space and you should have no problem gutting them." 

Aneleh smiled and stood straight, "You have a deal. I will protect her and the station, but if you fail to protect Warren, I'll gut you!" Pointing at him, she let out a small growl and collapsed.


	7. The Sky’s the Limit

_Dammit…what am I going to do? How am I going be able to handle living in that space station alone with J’onn when I really want to be among the stars with Warren? I mean Bruce does have a point when he said they are safer with me up in the station but it’s not fair! To top it off I guess Aneleh came out and made a pact with Bruce to keep the station safe as long as Bruce keeps Warren and Jae safe. I know she’s a totally different, crazy part of me but at least I know where her heart is._

_So now I have to go tell Warren and I know he won’t take it well, hell he’ll probably storm off and yell and threaten to burn the place down but we know that won’t last long once Bruce gives him “The Stare”._

_I hope for both my sake and everyone else’s that Bruce is right about this._

Helena sat for a moment as she went over in her head what she was going to do. She knew Warren was already upset because of the situation with his dad.  Shutting off her tablet she put it on the nearby table and stood up. She opened her door and walked down the hall to Warren’s room, she hesitated a moment before knocking on the door. She heard the doorknob turn and Warren looked out at her, his eyes were red but not from trying to read her. “Hey, are you okay?” Her heart jumped when she saw how upset he was.

“Um yeah I guess. Just trying to wrap my head around all this, y’know?  Kinda hard to really understand it all I guess.” Warren’s voice sounded sad as he opened the door wider.

“Can I come in?” Helena began to nervously play with her left thumbnail as she looked down.

“What’s going on Helena? Why are you fidgeting?” Warren’s voice became stern as his eyes focused on her.

Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up and her voice cracked, “Bruce is sending me to the Justice League space station alone without you.”

Warren’s eyes went wide as anger and sadness flashed across his face, “What? Why would he send you there without me?”

“He says that if I am away from you and Jae that you will actually be safer. That they are after me for what they think I know and they would you use two as a way to get to me.” She used her right arm to wipe her eyes.

Warren stood there and seemed to be thinking about what he said, “He’s right.”

“What do you mean he’s right? Aren’t you going to get all mad about this?” Helena seemed a bit surprised at his response.

“There is no point. Bruce has been in this game far longer than you or I. If he says you are safer on the station then I have to agree with him. If I know anything about your father he knows what he is doing.”

She stood expressionless as she processed his words, she then let out a sign and her shoulders sank. “So I leave tomorrow, can I hang out with you tonight?”

Warren smiled as he gave her a hug, “Sure. What do you want to do?”

Looking up and smiling Helena still in his embrace pushed him into his room and closed the door behind them.

* * *

Helena’s sleep was uneasy as images flashed in her mind of people fighting, screams of anger and pain filled her ears when she suddenly found herself surrounded by flames and the bodies of dead supers around her. She saw a man off in the distance shooting a flamethrower at anyone and anything that moved when a small figure jumped on his back, it was Jae. The man flayed about until he was able to grab the boy and throw him into a wall a flame, his screams lasted only moments.

Helena tried to run at the man but it seemed no matter how hard she ran she never got any closer to him. Jumping over the flames she saw Warren attack the man and they had a flame battle that quickly exploded in large amounts of heat and she saw Warren drop to his knees. The man walked up to him and unleashed the full force of his flame thrower when she woke suddenly, “Warren!”

Coming out the bathroom door attached to his room he saw Helena sitting up in the bed, she was breathing very fast and heavy. Her hair had grown long and her claws had come out but she wasn’t Aneleh yet. “What? What’s the matter with you? Are you okay?” Concern filled his words as he rushed next to her.

Looking at her hands and still breathing quickly she felt her head and arms noticing the hair had grown she gave him a look of fear, “I had a dream that you and Jae died in a wall of fire by that same Pyro person that fought your father! Jae died, you died I tried to save you both but I-I couldn’t get to you.”

Hugging her Warren could feel her heart racing and he tried to re-assure her, “It’s okay it was only a dream. You are scared to leave me and Jae and your dream is just expressing your fears.”

Looking up she had a look of understanding, “Do you-really think so? You don’t think they are trying to get into my head like Sweet Dreams do you?” Her hair was slowly receding as she gave what he said some thought.

“They know better than that! Besides I think J’onn has been keeping guard over you. Speaking of which Bruce wanted to see you.” Kissing her forehead he stood up and went back into the bathroom.

Looking around she grabbed her pants and put them on and looked in the mirror to check if she was back to normal. She left the room and came downstairs into the large livingroom where she saw Bruce sitting in a large easy chair with Superman standing next to him. “You wanted to see me?”

“I hope you had a good time last night. Clark is here to take you to the station, get your shoes on and you might need a jacket.” Bruce sat with his blue eyes fixed on her they did not appear as hard as they normally are. Helena wondered if this was a sign he was upset about her leaving.

“Okay-just let me go upstairs and get my stuff.” As she turned Superman interjected

“Allow me Helena, no need to go all the way back upstairs.” With a flash of movement she saw the red and blue blur go upstairs and back next to her within two seconds, “Here you go, I got you a chair to sit while putting those on.” Smiling he handed her boots to her and pointed behind her.

Looking behind her she saw one of the dining room chairs was neatly placed for her. Sitting down she took her boots from him and began to put them on, “So if you are coming to take me to the station are we going to take a shuttle or something?

“Well, not quite. We don’t want them to be able to target something as slow as a shuttle.” Superman crossed his arms as he smiled.

As she finished tying her boots she slowly stood up as Bruce handed her a big puffy down jacket, “Wait you aren’t serious are you?” she grabbed the coat and put it on.

“Don’t worry he’s a professional. They don’t call him faster than a speeding bullet for nothing, but in his case he’s faster than everything.” Resting his right hand on her shoulder Bruce gave her a smile.

Walking to the front door with her bag she packed the night before she saw Warren coming down the stairs. As Superman opened the door he gave a quick glance to him and walked out with Bruce while Helena stood in front of him. “Well, I’m on my way. I’ll call you when I get there.”

Warren smirked as he hugged her, “That should take long if he’s taking you there. Don’t worry about Jae and me. I won’t let anything happen while you are up there, okay?”

Helena began to cry as she embraced him just a bit longer when she gave him a kiss. She then turned and went out the front door as he followed her. Standing in the courtyard she saw Bruce and Superman talking when they both turned to face her. “Bruce I have a question, how will I still attend Sky High if I am in the space station?”

Bruce folded his arms and his face had an irritated look,” At Warren’s-suggestion I spoke with Medulla about creating a series of holographic emitters in all your classes and the cafeteria. He made the suggestion that if you were seen at school that nobody would suspect you aren’t really there.”

Helena’s face lit up, “That’s Awesome! So it’s like I’m gone but not really, plus I get to see Warren every day.” Turning she saw Warren smiling then she turned back to Bruce.

“Yes, awesome as it may be you have to remember not to touch anyone, not even Warren because you will pass right through each other. Then your cover will be blown for sure, is that understood?” Bruce’s voice went stern as he looked at the both of them. Helena nodded as Warren gave him an understanding glance.

“Well let’s get on our way, take my hand Helena.” Superman extended his left arm with his hand open. Helena grabbed it and was scooped up into his arms. “You two have nothing to worry about, she will be safe and it will give us time to figure out what the Legion is up to.”

“Bruce why was Mr. Medulla banned from the Batcave? He didn’t want to tell us.” Helena smiled as she rested in Superman’s arms.

Bruce’s eyes narrowed, “He put a hole through my house, that’s all you need to know. Now safe trip I’ll see you in a couple days.”

“Okay Helena, what we are going to do is a brief fly over so you can take in the sights. When I tell you to I want you to close your eyes tight and take a deep breath, okay?” Superman’s blue eyes focused on her as he gave his instructions.

“Okay.” Looking at Warren and Bruce she smiled. “I’ll see ya later.” With a slow accent she saw them get smaller as she went higher in the sky. The rate in which she went up was so gentle and quiet it seemed unreal. “Wow, this is amazing! This has got to be one of the perks of being a super.”

Smiling Superman looked down at her, “One of the perks yes. Are you ready?” Helena nodded and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes as tight as she could when she suddenly felt the air rush past her followed by a brief moment of silence and cold. “Okay you can open your eyes, we are here.”

Letting out a large exhale she peaked open her eyes and she was in the shuttle bay of the Justice League orbiting space station. “Warren wasn’t kidding when he said it wouldn’t take long” Putting her down she saw a familiar face greet her, “J’onn, hi!”

“Greetings Helena, I take it you enjoyed the trip up to the station?” J’onn floated over to her and looked down at her.

“Yeah it was interesting, never been in space before. Thanks to Clark it was a breeze!” She elbowed Superman in the side but ended up hurting her elbow. She grimaced as she rolled her arm in a circle, “I keep forgetting not to do that.”

“You never learn do you?” Superman chuckled as he held out his right arm, “I believe J’onn has a surprise for you. I must go back so enjoy yourself, there actually is a lot to do here believe it or not. Good-bye for now!” Giving a wave he quickly exited the docking bay and was out of sight.

“He is quite amazing, isn’t he J’onn?” Helena was looking out the docking bay opening. The only thing holding her from going out into the cold depth of space was a force field.

“He is quite an interesting individual you almost forget he is an alien like me. Come now, your surprise waits.” Turning around J’onn led her out of the bay down a large arching hallway and into an elevator. They took an elevator down to level 12 which was marked as the crew level. As the door opened a large open area with an indoor park filled with trees and bushes, a small pond, and artificial sunlight. “This is the entertainment area. It is to simulate the environment on earth I have set it for the time zone that Wayne Manor currently exists in. You have free reign of this whole level and I will give you a tour of the station tomorrow.”

Helena’s eyes went big as surprise filled her face, “This is amazing! How is this even possible?”

“On Mars we were forced underground after we lost our atmosphere so we utilized this technology to remind ourselves of what we lost. So I felt it suitable for the station to give it a sense of-life.” Turning he escorted her to a door at the other side of the park as she examined the area, a big smile etched on her face.

“So is this my surprise?” Looking up she almost walked into him as he stopped.

“No, this is.” Moving aside he opened a wooden door and Helena walked in. It was her room from Wayne Manor in every detail. From the bedding, the walls, even the smells. She stopped and covered her mouth with her right hand, tears started to form as she began to touch the table by her bed, the dresser, and the chair where she spent her nights writing in her journal.

“How did you do this? It’s my room, not just a copy this is _my_ room!” Turning around she saw J’onn examining her reaction before he responded.

“I had Clark bring your belongings her prior to your arrival. I felt by having a familiar environment would ease your duration spent here. I also at your fathers request installed holographic emitters in here so that you can still be seen at the manor.” Closing the door behind him he crossed his legs and floated above his favorite chair in her room. “It also has its other benefits.”

The door to her room opened and in walked Warren with a smile on his face. Helena’s face lit up as she ran to and through him into the wall. She turned around and looked at him, “You aren’t really here are you?”

“No, but with this set up we can still see each other, so it won’t be like you left really.” Warren smiled and put his hands in his pockets.

“Well that is good but we can’t touch each other, or cuddle like we used to.” Helena pouted as she looked down at the floor. Glancing up she knew Warren was embarrassed to talk about this in front of J’onn.

“Well, no we can’t but we can still be here for each other. Besides this is for the good of everyone involved so this isn’t the ideal way I want to spend time with you but it’s better than nothing.’ Standing right in front of her they looked into each other’s eyes. “I have to go with Bruce someplace so I wanted to see you before I left.  I’ll be thinking of you.” Putting his right hand up he opened his palm and Helena did the same. Their hands went through each other’s as he smiled and left the room.

Helena walked over and sat on her bed as she dropped her bag, she had a sad look as she looked at J’onn, “This is going to torture.”


	8. Identify Yourself

_Well it’s been a week since I came up to the station and aside from my holographic adventures at Sky High life has been surprisingly normal. I even got to hang out with Jae for a few hours today. He’s really starting to get good with his fire summoning I think he’s actually going to be more powerful than Warren. Speaking of which we spent some quality time today on the stations park, this place is pretty cool because we can change the ceiling to reflect the night sky outside as it currently is. It’s amazing how clear and bright the stars are from above the earth._

_I forgot one other thing Bruce is coming to visit me today. He said he wanted to talk to me about plans after graduation. Is there such thing as a Super Hero College? Oh well, I better go to the docking bay to greet him. I’ll update this with what I find out._

Putting down her table Helena sat up and stretched in her bed, interlacing her hands and stretching above her head she straightened he arms and grunted. Letting out a heavy sigh she sat at the edge of her bed grabbing her boots and laced them up.  As she stood and opened her door the low hum of the station flooded her room. Closing the door behind her she turned to her left and made her way across the station park, the room was sunlight with a perfect blue sky, fluffy clouds, and calm breeze. Exiting on the opposite entry she came to one of the main station elevators and pushed the “up” button. As she waited she could hear the distant chirps of the holographic sparrows in the park.

Staring at the floor meter above the elevator she heard a whisper to her right, “Helena”.  Unsure if she she heard the whisper she ignored it until it happened again, “Helena”.  Turing to the direction she had a wide eyed look around, “Hello? Who’s there? J’onn are you messing with me?”

“Helena, how long do you think you can hide from us? The Martian cannot protect you forever it’s only a matter of time before we get you. Surrender to us and we will not kill your brother and your lover.” The voice was shadowy and female.

Helena started to get angry and scared as she thought to herself, “If you so much lay a hand on either of them I’ll do to you what I did to Bane.”

“Bane is an idiot, we will not be so easy to defeat. Surrender or watch them die!” The voice became more aggressive and Helena knew she needed to disconnect before they could find her so she calmed herself and cut off her mind from anymore intrusions. The voice was silenced and the sudden Bing from the elevator arriving startled her as she turned around and quickly got in.

The elevator couldn’t go fast enough for her as it made its way to the docking bay. She wanted to tell J’onn and Bruce what just happened when she suddenly remembered she could summon him, “J’onn I think the Legion is trying to track me down, meet me in the docking bay.”  Hearing J’onn deep voice reply into her mind, “Understood I shall be there momentarily.”  The door opened up and Helena ran down the corridor leading to the docking bay, her boots echoed with each step until she entered the massive bay.  J’onn stood next to what looked like the Bat jet and Bruce decked out in his full Batman garb.

“Helena, J’onn was just telling me something happened to you before I got here.” Bruce’s stern voice echoed in the large bay as his blue eyes focused on her while she bend forward resting her hands on her knees.

As she panted and tried to collect her breath she stood up and finally spoke, “I was-in the hallway waiting for the elevator to meet you. I heard a whisper that soon turned out to be a voice of a woman. J’onn can you read my mind and share it with Bruce? I think it will come across better that way.” Still out of breath she looked into J’onn’s glowing red eyes. A replay of what happened was shown to him and Bruce in real time when suddenly they were back in the bay.

“Interesting that I did not sense her making her communication with you, she must have found a bypass to the blocks we created. I will see to it that such an occurrence does not happen again.’ J’onn seemed slightly curious and annoyed at the breach in his mental barriers.

“Do you know who she is? How could she be strong enough to get past your barriers?” Helena’s concern was evident as she looked between him and Bruce.

“I do not know yet, I do not think it is Sweet Dreams. This is someone more powerful than her, it could be Tala.”

“Tala, what makes you think it was her?” Bruce spoke up with a bit of a surprised tone.

“She does have some mental abilities, it is rumored she has supernatural powers derived from what the humans call ‘Hell’. She is able to manipulate and mentally influence others do her will. I will need to further research this.  Excuse me.” J’onn flew out of the bay and through an adjacent wall.

“What do you think we should do Bruce?” Helena folded her arms she was upset at the idea of Jae and Warren getting hurt.

“Let J’onn do his work, he will find out who is behind your encounter. Before I forget I wanted to know how school has been going with the holographic emitters. Have there been any problems on your end?”

“Well there were a couple of close calls, Mr. Medulla was conducting an experiment and it blew up causing a lot of smoke. If it wasn’t for Warren the class would have seen the path of the emitters in the smoke. Other than that it’s been pretty smooth so far.” She felt better discussing her school days with Bruce.

“I’ll talk with Medulla when I get back, we need to avoid any accidents like that one again. Also finals are coming and one of the requirements is you need to design and construct your hero costume.” Bruce gave a slight smirk as he wrapped his cap around him.

“Do a what? When did they start doing that?” Helena was a bit shocked she thought that the suits were designed when they were out in the real world.

“Let’s say they took inspiration from your little stunt back at SCUM headquarters. Look at it this way, now you can design an outfit that doesn’t rely on you stealing from my supplies and better suits you.”

Helena blush a little as she turned her face away from his gaze, “So do we have any restrictions on our designs?”

“Well, nothing too indecent, nothing less revealing that what Diana wears.” Smirking he walked alongside the Bat jet as she followed with him.

Looking up at him again concern crossed her face, “What are we going to do about the Legion’s threat, do you think they will actually go after Warren and Jae?”

Bruce stopped and sighed, “We-I will do whatever I can to make sure they are safe.” Turning to her his eyes narrowed as he leaned forward, “You are not to worry about that, concentrate on your studies. I don’t want either one of them knowing what happened.”  Standing up straight his tone softened, “You focus on designing your costume and do me a favor.”

Helena narrowed her eyes, “What?”

“Don’t copy mine or your mothers, be original.” Turning he let a small chuckle as she walked next to him.

“Hey, I thought that was a pretty cool costume if you ask me, did you see my butt in those pants?” Helena laughed as Bruce groaned. The both exited the bay and right as the lights went out a shadow made a quick exit from the Bat jet to an open door on the other side of the room.


	9. The Jig is Up!

_It has been a pretty easy couple months here on the station aside from not being able to be hold Warren, smell him, or kiss him.  Oh, I have been working on ideas for my hero costume. I was thinking of combining the looks of Bruce’s outfits and Mom’s, but I’d make it my own. I know, I want dark colors like navy and dark purple, I don’t want a cowl or anything limiting for a headpiece. Like I said, I’ll figure it out. Oh crap, I’m late for class!”_

Tucking her tablet into her book bag, she ran down the hall to the ‘classroom’ where a desk just like that in Sky High was set up and a table that was the same as in the lunchroom as well.  Quickly sitting down, the room transformed into her first class with Mr. Medulla. He smiled when she appeared in the class, as she was always the first there. 

“Good morning Helena, I hope you’re doing well. The feed seems solid as ever.” He seemed a little nervous, well a little more than normal, as he looked at each transmission point around the room repeatedly. 

“Yeah, it appears to be working a lot better. Is there something wrong Mr. Medulla? You seem more on edge than normal.” Helena got out her pen, writing pad, and book. 

“Hmm? Oh I’m fine, just f-well your f-father came by this morning. He was checking up on how the emitters are working, but I assured him they’re as reliable as ever! Oh look here come the rest of the class.” Turning his large head toward the door, Helena looked up as some of the other students came into the class. 

Per usual Warren came in last, sitting next to her he winked before scanning the rest of the room. Class began as usual with Medulla taking role and discussing the current lesson. Helena could see Warren looking at her from her right, “Something on your mind?” 

Warren smirked, “No, I just was admiring the view.” 

“Well soak it in. I talked to my dad yesterday, and if things work out, we may be able to see each other soon.” She smiled, as she could see his eyes light up for a second. 

“Yeah well, that would be cool to hang out at the mansion, I guess. “ Warren tried to play it cool, but she knew he was excited at the thought of being together. “So, when did he say we could-y’know, can hang out?” 

Smiling, Helena shrugged her shoulders before Mr. Medulla began teaching the lesson. She tried to concentrate on her studies, as the thought of being with Warren in the flesh flooded her mind. Before she knew it, the class was over, and as usual she had to wait for the other students to leave before she got up and followed Warren out of the class. 

The holographic emitters worked flawlessly as she walked down the hall with Warren, all the while making sure to avoid running into any other students. This was how her day went on the station, to make it look like she was walking J’onn set up a treadmill for her to make it look real.  Soon it was time for lunch and she sat down at her table in the station. She was joined by Will, Layla, Athena, and Carrie, as they sat at the table with her and Warren. 

Aside from Warren, nobody knew that she was a hologram over the course of the school year, so as they sat and talk the conversations were mostly about their classes. How difficult one teacher was and how funny Mr. Medulla looked as he scurried around the cafeteria. 

“So Helena, tell us how life at Wayne Manor is lately?” Carrie sipped her milk. 

“Realistically, it’s really kinda boring. I mean yeah, my dad is Batman but aside from the daily combat training it’s like any other home. Of course, having the Internet and every cable channel you could want is a bonus, but when it comes down to it, it’s just a big house.” Helena leaned on her right elbow, as she took a bite from her ham and cheese sandwich. 

“Oh Helena, you make it seem so boring!” Athena laughed, “The house is amazing, the architecture is so gothic, and the views, from my room at least, are awesome.”

“Yeah well-” Helena was cut short by the blaring of alarms filling the room with flashing red lights. 

Principle Powers’ voice came across the school intercom, “Red Alert! Red Alert! Enemy forces are approaching from the south. This is not a drill! All flying type students and instructors are to report to the front lawn. All elemental type students are to report to the gym. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill!” Everyone at the table looked with wide eyes, as they stood up. 

“What do we do?” Athena whimpered. 

“We do what they said, now move it! Carrie, Athena, go to the front lawn! Layla get the sidekicks and non-combat students to the safe room!” Warren took control of the situation as students and faculty ran through the halls. Looking at Helena, he had a moment of uncertainty. “You better disappear and tell the league we are under attack, I promise to contact you later.” 

Before he left the room, Helena called out to him, “Warren! If you don’t call me, I’m going to kick your ass!” She was visibly upset but tried to keep a brave face as he smiled and left the room. Immediately, the hologram ended and she was back in her virtual classroom. She ran to the console on the wall and pushed a button for the intercom, “J’onn, Sky High is under attack!” 

The deep voice of the Martian came over the com system, “I am monitoring a large contingent of ships approaching the school from the north, south, east, and west. Their signatures indicate that they are from the Legion of Doom. I have sent out a class 5 alert to all Justice League members, but it seems the only ones within range are your father, Kal-El, and Diana.” 

“We have to do something J’onn, we have to help them!” Helena ran out the room and activated her mobile device. She ran to the nearest lift and as it opened, she saw Jae in the elevator. 

“I knew it! Your room was way too quiet yet the last few months and somehow you were at school!” He exclaimed. 

“Jae? What the-how the hell did you get here? It doesn’t matter get back in there.” Helena shoved him back into the lift, as she pushed the button to the bridge. 

“Helena, my sensors indicate there is another life form with you. Are you in danger?” J’onn inquired. 

“It’s fine J’onn, _somehow_ Jae got onto the station. We’re heading to the bridge.” Helena scowled at Jae who seemed unaffected by the look.

As the door opened to the bridge, Jae whistled as he saw the large bay of windows with the curve of the earth filling most of them. “Wow J’onn! I like your office!” 

“Hello Jason, I thought that was you. Helena’s father let me know you were here a couple months ago, and I was wondering when you would finally show up.” J’onn was busy monitoring the events at Sky High, as Helena walked next to him. 

Jae scoffed, “You know how big this station is, right J’onn? It took me that long just to explore the lower sections looking for her.” 

“How far until Superman and my father get to the school?” Looking at the moving targets, she could see them slowly surround the school. 

“Kal-El is half a planet away, while your father will be there in ten minutes.” Touching a few buttons he accessed the school’s cameras. “We should be able to monitor the school from here.” 

Helena could see Warren in the gym with the other elementals, as they were given instructions by Couch Boomer. On another camera, she could see Carrie, Athena, Will, and other flying types out on the front lawn. A few took to the sky scanning the area waiting for the ships to come into view.  The school’s defensive cannons were in position with smaller light machine guns being manned by teachers. In the corner of the screen she could make out the large head of Mr. Medulla at one of the larger guns.

As the students strained their eyes they saw a large number of flying craft slowly approached the school in a large ring. Helena could see the students were scared as they comprehended the sheer number of enemy ships. A hiss of a radio transmission came across the school intercom and a monotone voice filled the sky, “We are the Legion of Doom, this facility has been deemed a threat and will be eliminated. Surrender the young ones and nobody gets hurt. There will be no negotiations you have 30 seconds to comply.” 

Helena’s heart almost leapt from her chest. She could see Warren and the others in the gym run to different parts of the school and enter small rooms. The rooms were the base of towers that slowly rose and locked into position.

“3…2…1,” J’onn counted down and on the screen a multitude of smaller objects came flying out of the larger ones. From the cameras, she could see massive amounts of gunfire unleash from all sides of the school. She could see Carrie and Athena flying toward the smaller ships, small explosions came from the direction they flew in as she could see the ships fall from the sky. Will was flying behind the school defending the back as fire, water, electricity, and ice came from all four towers. 

Mr. Medulla was firing and hitting his targets with extreme accuracy, large explosions struck the school and the cameras shook with every strike. Into the large monitor a symbol indicating Batman and Superman had come to the scene, flying at great speed. Scanning back to the school camera, Helena saw one of the larger ships explode in the background, smoke and fire trailing behind it as it fell from the sky. Superman landed on the smoking field and using his heat vision he shot down missiles and attacking ships. 

Batman engaged in several dogfights as he shot down one enemy ship after another. Helena’s eyes filled with tears at the thought of her friends, family, and Warren under attack by such a large number of enemy forces. Diana’s jet came into the battle and as she joined the fight, it seemed like they were getting the upper hand when another alarm went off. Helena jumped, “What’s that mean?” 

J’onn’s eyes went wide, “They have launched a massive number of projectiles at the school, there are too many! They can’t stop them all.” 

“No!” Helena screamed as Jae hugged her. On the school camera Superman used his heat vision to sweep the horizon followed by huge explosions that blinded the camera, the school shook with the concussions. The school sharply tilted to the right, any students who couldn’t fly slid down the lawn, Carrie and Athena scooped up those who were close to falling off and carried them to a stable part of the building.  

With another large explosion the school slowly started to fall from the sky. Immediately, Will, Athena, Carrie, and Superman flew under the school and out of camera range. Bruce patched in a live feed from his Bat Jet as he shot down another craft, “C’mon Kal-El, get that thing under control!” Bruce commanded, as he circled the school. Smoke and fire billowed from Sky High as it plummeted below the clouds, the rest of the Justice League engaged the retreating enemy ships, large explosions came as several more ships fell from the sky. 

Flying after the school Bruce came through the clouds and saw the it slowed its decent but was still going too fast. Over the transmission Bruce contacted Superman, “Get out of there! Rescue the kids and let it crash!” 

Superman’s grunting reply was muffled, “I won’t let this school crash and hurt innocent people. We must stop it!” 

“Dad! You need to help them!” Helena cried into the com device. J’onn gave her a sharp look at he pushed her back. 

“Helena you fool! If they track your transmission they will know you aren’t on the school!” J’onn scolded. 

Helena covered her mouth with both hands as she backed up. Her eyes were wide as she sat down in a nearby chair. Jae wrapped his arms around her as his eyes glistened with emotion. 

J’onn turned back to the monitor and watched as the school came closer to the ground. Superman could be heard grunting combined with the screams and grunts of Athena, Carrie, Will, and the other flying students. “Everyone listen to me! When I give the word, I want you to go to the edges of the school and try pulling. We need to soften the impact!” As Bruce circled the school, he could see the giant redwood forest of California come into view below them. Superman’s voice came back on the com, “Now!” 

In a flash, all of them flew to the sides of the school and grabbed the edges of the saucer rim. Helena could see them straining to pull the school skyward, and then she noticed something else. The forest started to grow upward and expand below the school as large redwood trees stretched their great branches and made a natural net. 

The school impacted with a large crunching noise of wood and steel as it slid across the landscape. A large plume of smoke and dust was followed by a line of fire until the school came to a stop. 

“Kal-El, is everyone okay?” Bruce’s voice came across the com speakers. 

Superman’s voice gasped, “Yes, it appears so. I’ll have to thank whoever turned the forest into a big safety net later. For now, I’m going to check for the wounded.”

“I’ll be down there shortly. I want to thank that person too.” Bruce sighed with relief. 

Helena’s thoughts were filled with worry for her friends and most of all Warren. Jae hugged her and squeezed her hand, “Don’t worry sis, I’m sure he made it.” 

“How can you be so sure Jae?” Helena tearfully looked into his eyes. 

“Warren’s too tough to die in something like that.  I bet you he’s more pissed off that he couldn’t take more of them down. C’mon let the senior members of the League handle this.” He stood up and extended his right hand to her. 

“Yes, go rest in your room, and let us hope your blunder didn’t give your location away. I will contact you when I hear any news.” J’onn looked down at her with his glowing red eyes. She could tell he wasn’t happy. 

Taking Jae’s hand, they walked to the elevator and pushed the button. As the doors opened she turned around and looked at the smoldering wreck of the school on the monitor. Walking into the elevator, she turned and looked at Jae, “I don’t ever want to feel this helpless again.”


	10. Aftermath

Helena sat on her bed as Jae lay asleep next to her. She stared at his sleeping form and wished she could be as oblivious to what is going on in the world. She couldn’t get the image of Sky High smoldering on the ground out of her mind, and what of Warren, Athena, Layla, Carrie, and all the other students? She couldn’t bring herself to write in her journal as some thoughts are best kept to oneself. The silence was broken by a chime from the intercom panel on the wall. 

“Helena, please join me on the main bridge.” J’onn’s voice calmly requested. 

“What is it? Did they find Warren and the others?” She sprung from the bed and ran to the panel. 

“Yes, and they want to talk with you.”

“I’m on my way.” Pushing a button on the panel she turned to Jae and yelled, “Get up! They found them alive!” flinging open the door she ran down the hall. 

Jae sprung from the bed confused at first, and then after he rubbed his eyes and collected his thoughts, he ran after Helena. “Hey wait up!” 

Helena slowed a little as they crossed the indoor park and made their way to the main lift to the bridge. The ride up seemed like an eternity for Helena, and a million questions ran through her head. The doors opened and the bridge came into view with J’onn at the control panel. Turning to look at them he looked back at the monitors and pushed a button bringing the images of Layla, Will, and Carrie on the screen. “Here she is.” J’onn’s voice echoed. 

Running to the screen Helena smiled and laughed, “Oh my god! Are you guys okay? Where’s Warren? Is he okay?” 

Layla smiled, “We are fine Helena and Warren only has a few bumps. He’s helping Athena with the wounded and-dead.” Layla’s eyes filled with tears as she turned around. 

“Dead, who died?” Helena’s heart sank at the thought that someone actually died. 

“The tower that had the electric elementals in it took a direct hit by one of their rockets…I couldn’t stop it. The explosion destabilized the school and a second rocket took out one of the engines that kept the school afloat.” Will seemed pretty shook up. 

“Oh my god, Steve Flash is an electric elemental. Was he in that tower?” Helena looked intently at Will. 

“He was. From what we gather it looked like he tried to stop the rocket but he-wasn’t successful.” Will walked away from the camera as Layla stood with Carrie. 

“Carrie, where is Batman and Superman?” J’onn asked. 

“Batman is attending to the wounded and my father went to chase the fleeing Doom armada.” Carrie motioned with her left arm. 

“Carrie, I saw the effort you and the others did to save the school and I wanted to thank you for what you did.” Jae stood next to Helena’s right side. 

“We can’t take all the credit kiddo. If it wasn’t for Layla creating that forest safety net the damage would have been much more catastrophic.” Carrie hugged Layla who smiled as she wiped the tears off her cheeks. 

“I knew that was you Layla! Your powers rival Poison Ivy herself.” Jae folded his arms and smirked. 

“Don’t compare me to that woman Jason! She is a murderer who uses plants to harm others. I use my ability to help people.” Layla snapped

“I-I’m sorry Layla. I didn’t mean to.” Jae stammered as his face flushed with embarrassment.

Layla sighed, “It’s okay, I’m just upset about everything. I need to go find Will.”  Layla walked out of screen leaving a concerned Carrie behind. 

“Carrie, go with her. Can you tell Warren to contact me when he can?” Helena asked as she sat in a nearby chair. 

“Sure Helena. Take care!” Smiling, she turned off the communicator. 

J’onn turned to her and stared down with his red eyes, “I am sorry at the loss of your classmates, battles are often bloody and in some cases deadly.“ 

“I know J’onn, and they would probably do it again blah, blah, blah. It still doesn’t make the pain go away any faster.” Signing, she looked back into the ruby hue of his eyes. 

“I understand your pain. When I lost my family on Mars, it was the most devastating emotional event I have ever felt. For a long time I was consumed by the mix of emotions, but in time I knew that death is as much a part of life. None of us will live forever, so it’s up to us how we live and greet death with open arms when it is our time.” J’onn gave a small smile before turning to his console. 

Helena sat wide eyed in her chair, she had no idea what J’onn had been through, but his insights on life and death made sense. She then realized she really wasn’t afraid of death, but life.  She looked out the large window that overlooked earth as it slowly passed below, the reflections of all the small lakes, rivers, and the ocean seemed like mirrors when she noticed something out of place. She walked to the glass getting a better view, “Uh, J’onn what are those?” 

Looking at her then back to his console, he pulled up that section of space on the screen. “Impossible!”

On the large monitor were five of the same ships that attacked the school moving slowly toward the station. Pushing the alarm button, metal blast doors slowly came across the glass. “How could they have gotten past the early warning systems?” 

“You can’t be serious!  They’re after me J’onn, that’s been their goal all this time! They thought I was at the school and now they’re here!” Helena ran over and grabbed J’onn’s massive green arm and shook it.

“The stations defenses will only hold them for a time, but until the rest of the League can aid us we may be overrun.” J’onn activated the stations defensive cannons and the large ships spread out returning fire. 

The station shuddered with the impacts of each blast but seemed unaffected, “I need to leave J’onn, I have to get them away from the station. Perhaps if I-“ 

J’onn interrupted, “Out of the question. If you go out of the station, they would kill you for sure.” 

“But if I stay here, they could destroy the station and all of us will die anyway. At least if I can get back to the planet, I can try to shake them and get back to Warren and the others.”  Helena urged. 

J’onn stared at her, then at the screen. “There is a space jet in the hangar. I can set it to take you to the planet at a speed that will outpace any fighters they send after you. Take Jason with you, you know he wouldn’t stay otherwise. When you are in the ship, I will project you going the other way.” 

Helena grabbed Jae’s left hand and they ran to the turbo lift. Within moments they were in the main hangar, to the left was a ship that looked like a flying wedge. It was black with small windows and back swept wings. Running in the back of the craft, she took the left seat and Jae took the right. Pushing the button to close the main hatch, J’onn’s voice came on the radio. “I’ll guide the craft out at maximum speed, and it will take you to the school. You will find the weapons panel to your left in case they try to surround you, good luck.”

“Thanks J’onn, I appreciate all you’ve done. We’re ready to go when you are.” Helena and Jae strapped themselves in as the engines roared to life and the ship taxied to the slow opening bay door.  Explosions flashed against the stations shields, as they came to a stop. Then with great acceleration, the ship embraced outer space and made an immediate turn toward earth. 

 “They’re following us sis!” Jae pointed to a small screen that had five smaller fighters closing behind them. Soon flashes of laser blasts appeared in front and next to them. “I’ll man the weapons; I hope the A.I. on this ship knows a few tricks on how to lose these guys!” 

The ship shuttered with each explosion as it angled to enter the atmosphere. The friction on the ship, as it plunged through the sky, produced a bright flame that surrounded it.  Bursting through the upper clouds, the ship accelerated to evade the pursuing enemy crafts. 

“I don’t know how many more direct hits we can take before the shields fail Jae.” Helena shouted as she looked out the window behind them. 

“Well, unless you know how to fly a ship better than the A.I., I suggest we let it do its job.” He continued to fire at the ships while cursing under his breath. 

Helena looked around at the ship’s console for a switch to turn off the autopilot when a flashing red button caught her eye. Pushing it, the color changed to green and the ship began to slow down. “I found it!”

“That’s great now get this hunk of junk up to speed, and let’s lose these assholes!” Jae screamed. 

Turning quickly she shot Jae a look, “Jason! You watch your mouth! I don’t care if you think the situation warrants it, there is no excuse for that kind of-Whoa!”  A blast hit the side of the ship bringing her back to their current condition, “We will talk about this later.” 

Rolling his eyes, he continued shooting at the ships, as Helena made broad turns and barrel rolls. “Oh god, please don’t do that again!” Jae pleaded as he shook his head. 

Helena could see the mountains where the school had crashed on the other side when the ship took a direct hit to the left thruster, “Great! Those jerks got us!” 

“Can you make it over the mountains? We’ve a better chance of making it to the school if we can get on the other side.” The ship groaned as it tried to maintain altitude.

“I think so, but the landing won’t be pretty!” Helena struggled to keep the ship up, smoke trailed behind them, as it crossed over the mountain peaks. She guided the ship as far down the mountain as she could before she started clipping the treetops. The cracking of trees filled their ears as the black ship cut its way down the mountain and came to a stop against a large rock. 

“We got to get out! It’s going to blow!” Grabbing Jae, she blew the emergency hatch and they both jumped out. Running as fast down the hill as they possibly could, the explosion knocked them off their feet and caused them to roll.  Scrambling behind some trees, they could see the pursuing ships hover above the flaming wreckage and shine some lights on it before speeding off into the sky. 

“Do you think they’ll come back?” Jae asked nervously. 

“Let’s hope they think we died in that. C’mon we gotta get to the school.” Taking his hand, they made it down the hillside. After a couple hours, they came to a small cave that was big enough for them to crouch in. “We can rest here for a bit, you need to rest.” 

“Are you okay? You look cold; here let me warm you up.”  Jae hugged her from behind and she could noticeably feel him warm up. 

“That’s what I love most about you Jae; you are always great at cuddling.” She smirked. 

“Yeah yeah, I’m only doing this so you won’t freeze to death. Do me a favor and don’t tell Warren I did this.” Jae scoffed as he leaned his head on her back and closed his eyes.

“Why not, do you think he’ll get mad at his brother for keeping his girlfriend warm?” Helena whispered.

“That’s a whole other subject in itself, you’re my sister and he’s my brother yet you two are dating. I swear this has to be the most redneck situation ever.” Jae whispered as he was slowly falling asleep. 

“Well if you put it that way yes, but we aren’t related to each other, just you so it’s perfectly legal.” She replied. She could hear Jae lightly snoring as the events finally caught up to him. She then leaned up against the cave wall and fell asleep herself. 

Helena suddenly awoke to a snapping noise in the dark forest. Slowly letting Jae go, she stepped out of the cave to peer into the darkness.  Pale moonlight shone through the trees when suddenly a bright light flooded her from above. Before she could react, two men in black and grey army fatigues came out of the bushes with long poles. At the end of each pole was a nylon rope that they quickly slung over Helena’s head and tighten on her neck. She used her hands to try and stop them from choking her as she struggled. 

“Helena!” Jae came running out of the cave when he was grabbed by two other men in dark combat gear. 

“Let him go!” She grunted as she tried to turn and look at Jae. 

“By order of the Legion of Doom, you are here by arrested on crimes against the Legion. You are to be taken back to headquarters where you will be our prisoners.” A taller man in an officer’s uniform walked out of the bushes. He had a narrow face with coal black eyes and pencil thin mustache, which gave him the look of a walking snake. 

“Let us go or else the Justice League will hunt you down and –Ugh!” The ropes tightened around her neck. 

“The Justice League isn’t here my dear, so your threat is hollow. Either come willingly or else I will kill the boy. We really don’t have a need for him anyway.” The man smirked as he watched Helena apparently comply. 

She stood motionless for a moment then spoke, “Y’know, the last people who threatened to kill my brother regretted that decision and so will you.” Slowly raising her head and looking up at him her eyes had turned yellow and cat-like. Her body began to glow with a yellow aura as her hair stood on end, a low growl rose from her throat. 

“What in the hell is this?” The officer declared.  In front of his eyes Helena grew taller and more muscular, her body became covered in hair, and her hands had long sharp claws, which quickly snapped the ropes around her neck. She then exploded in a scream so loud and primal the men around her cowered and backed away, Aneleh had awakened. “Don’t just stand there fools subdue her!” 

Before any of the men could react, Aneleh did a back flip and killed the two who were holding Jae throwing their limp bodies into the cave in one acrobatic motion. She then turned her attention to the large group of men and began to tear her way through them. Screams of pain could be heard as random gunshots filled the air, Jae stood motionless as he witnessed the carnage before him. A solder came running at him and on instinct, he let loose with both hands, a torrent of blue flames that instantly incinerated the man and caught some of the surrounding trees on fire. 

As his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the fires, he could see the silhouette of Aneleh crouching over the lifeless body of the officer that had blood dripping from his mouth. All Jae could do was look into the rage filled eyes of his sister before she looked at him, a sudden sadness filled them as she dropped the body, but she remained crouched. 

“Sis, what have you done?” Jae asked hoarsely.


	11. Regrets

Jae stood in silence as he stared at the feral form of his sister, the crackling of the fires around them was the only sound heard. Tears formed as he stared into the bright yellow eyes of Aneleh who seemed visibly remorseful for what just happened. Slowly standing up and looking at her bloodstained hands she let out a long, sad agonizing roar, as if she knew what she had done was unspeakable.  Aneleh stared into the sky as if she was asking for forgiveness when sounds of more men came from up the mountain. Turning with a growl she looked in the direction the noises came from then ran to Jae, slinging him on her back, and leapt to the high branches of the nearest tall tree. 

Jumping from branch to branch Jae held tightly to her, the sound of her grunts and the coolness of the breeze as they left the flaming carnage behind them was little comfort.  Jae couldn’t get the image of the man he incinerated out of his mind as he closed his eyes and buried his face in her back. He began to cry softly when he realized they stopped on a branch, “Brother, I am sorry…for what you saw with those bad men. They were…going to hurt you…hurt Helena. I had to…I had to.” Aneleh’s voice broke with emotion before she began leaping again. 

“I understand sis, we both did something we had to tonight. What now? We can’t bring them back, they are gone forever!” Jae cried. 

With an exasperated voice Aneleh could only utter, “Adapt…remember…forgive yourself.” 

“How can I forgive myself? I took a life and that is the one thing I swore I would never do.” 

Aneleh stopped again, “I don’t know the answer, I am trying to not think about it. We must find the school Warren will know what to do. Now be quiet and sleep if you can.” 

Aneleh spent the rest of the night leaping and running in the trees when soon the school came into sight. She was getting very tired and Helena was trying to take control again but she knew she couldn’t relent until they reached the others.  She jumped to the ground and ran as fast as she could with Jae on her back. Soon they came out into a clearing in front of the school where she dropped to her knees and let Jae off, “Warren, go find.” 

Rolling onto her back exhausted Jae knelt next to her with a panicked look on his face, “Sis! I’ll go get help!” Running towards the school Jae found Will making repairs to the underside of the school. Grabbing his arm he followed him back to Aneleh who by now had changed back to Helena. “We gotta take her to Warren he’s the only one she wants to see.” 

“Sure thing, get on my back and we will fly to him.” Will cradled Helena’s unconscious body as Jae got on him. 

“I’m getting tired of all these piggy back rides.” Jae quipped. 

Will laughed as he took to the sky, Jae held tight as they flew up and over the damaged structure of Sky High. He could see Mr. Medulla overseeing the repairs of the school and its defensive weapons as other teachers instructed small groups of students on how to repair different parts of the school. Landing by the damaged main entrance Jae got off and stood looking around. “Your brother is in the gym with Batman, they are tending to the wounded with Athena.” Will knew he was anxious to see his brother so he followed behind him holding Helena. 

As they entered the gym Jae saw his brother sitting next to an injured student when their eyes met. Immediately he ran to Jae and hugged him. “Thank God you’re safe, are you hurt?” 

“I’m no worse for wear, but you guys may want to look at Helena. We had a bad night getting here Warren. I need to talk to you about something.” Jae hugged Warren tightly. 

Looking down at him he only wondered what he meant. Warren then looked at Will holding Helena, “Put her on that cot over there and we can take a look at her.” He pointed to a section of wall. 

Will slowly flew over to the cot and gently laid her down as Warren and Bruce came over to her. Bruce took her temperature then examined her for injuries.  Both he and Warren noticed her hands and forearms stained with blood up to the elbows, looked at each other, then Jae.  Warren walked to him and looked down on him, “What happened last night?” 

Jae’s eyes welled up as he began to cry, in a raspy voice he barely got out the words, “We killed them.” 

“What do you mean ‘we’ killed them?” Bruce commanded. 

Jae dropped to his knees and looked at his hands, “We left the station and were chased by members of the Legion of Doom. They hit one of our engines and we crash landed in the mountain. We found a place to hide but they found us, they threatened to kill me if she didn’t go with them. That’s when…” 

“That’s when what Jae?” Warren knelt down, rested his left hand on Jae’s right shoulder. 

Looking up with red, tear filled eyes, “Aneleh, she rescued me. She moved…so fast, all I could hear was men screaming and-and gunfire. Then one ran at me, I don’t know if he was running at me or away from her but I reacted and, “Jae looked down and cried louder, “I turned him to ashes!” 

Warren’s eyes went wide and slowly stood up. He looked over at Bruce who was silently observing Jae with his piercing blue eyes. “Warren, take Jae to see Athena and Diana. Tell Diana about what happened and see what she can do about those memories. I don’t want this kind of trauma to affect him like it did to me at that age. I’ll tend to Helena.” 

“What can Diana do?” Warren helped Jae to his feet. 

“She can use her lasso to dull those memories, maybe even forget what happened.” Bruce turned to look at Helena. 

“Will it work with her as well?” Jae asked through his sniffles.

“Helena isn’t who I’m worried about. Don’t worry Jae, this won’t happen again.”  Bruce turned and gave him a smile. 

As Warren escorted Jae to Athena and Diana, Bruce gave Helena an injection.  Slowly she opened her eyes and looked at Bruce, “We made it? How?” sitting up quickly she looked around, “Where’s Jae?”

“He’s with Warren, he’s safe. What do you remember from last night?” Bruce stared intently. 

“Well, after we crashed our jet we managed to hide in a cave but we were found by those Doom thugs, this jerk told me if I didn’t go with him he’d kill Jae, and that’s all…” She seemed puzzled at why she couldn’t remember past that then she saw her hands, in disbelief she screamed, “No! What did that bitch do?” 

Bruce gently grabbed her hands and put them together as her wide eyes looked into his, “She saved Jae and you but at a terrible cost.” 

“She saved us?” her voice cracked. 

“Yes, but I fear she may be more damaged by the event than we know.  There’s more, it involves Jae but you need to hear it.” Bruce’s voice remained firm but compassionate. 

“What about Jae, what happened to him?”  She grabbed one of Bruce’s hands tight. 

“In the chaos of the ‘event’ he incinerated one of the soldiers.” 

“He…did what?”  Looking at Jae next to Warren she could see Diana loop her lasso around his head, “What’s she doing?” 

“Helping him forget, do you want that to be on his conscience?” Bruce turned to look as Diana gave him a knowing glance. 

“No, he doesn’t need that kind of burden weighing him down.” Looking at the blood on her hands she looked back at Bruce, “So, what now?” 

“We will deal with that when it comes time. Right now we need to concentrate on getting this school prepared for the oncoming assault that the Legion is surely going to unleash.” Bruce gently let go of her hands and rested them on her lap, “I want you to wash your hands and do not mention to Jae what Aneleh or he did last night, understood?” 

Helena nodded, “I thought by coming here I could save lives but I’m beginning to think I made it worse.” 

“I won’t lie to you, things will get worse, but I do have a plan.  I have called in a few favors and Clark is gathering all the League members to rally here.  This is where we confront them head on, and with luck stop them once and for all.” Bruce clenched his fists as he spoke, Helena could tell he was affected more than he was leading on. 

As Bruce walked away she made her way to the girl’s locker room where she found water was working on only one sink.  As she looked at herself in the cracked mirror lit only by a flickering neon bulb that dangled from the ceiling she could see the extent of the blood that covered her. Washing the blood clean she silently wept as a few tears came trailed down her cheeks, she could never imagine that Aneleh could kill anyone. She also felt a small amount of pride that Aneleh protected Jae, that if she was as strong she would have done the same thing without killing them. 

As she stared into her own eyes she suddenly found herself in front of Aneleh’s house. Looking around she could hear someone crying loudly.  Helena opened the door to the house and made her way to Aneleh’s room where the crying was loudest. Opening the bedroom door she saw Aneleh laying on her disheveled bed curled into a ball. “Hey…” Helena’s voice cracked. 

Aneleh stopped crying and turned her head slightly, “I suppose you hate me even more now.” 

Helena slowly walked to the edge of the bed,” If it was for any other reason maybe, but no I don’t hate you. I actually wanted to thank you.” Helena sat on the edge of the bed.

Aneleh slowly sat up and turned to her, her once bright yellow eyes were dull, her face wet with tears, “Why don’t you hate me? I killed people, I took their lives with these claws!” she held up both arms with her hands outstretched. 

Helena reached out and grabbed Aneleh’s hands and held them tightly. This shocked her but she didn’t pull back, but looked confused. “I can’t be mad at something I would have done myself. You did what you felt was needed to save us, save Jae. Yes you killed, yes you took many lives but if you didn’t do what you did we would all be dead. So thank you, thank you Aneleh.” 

Aneleh sat wide eyed as she comprehended the words, then relaxed. “You confuse me sometimes.” 

Helena laughed, “I confuse myself even more, but do me a favor. If we are in danger like that again, don’t kill them. Maim them disable them if you want, but no more killing. Can you do that?” 

Aneleh smirked as she wiped her left cheek with her left arm, “I think I can manage that, besides I enjoy watching them suffer more than finishing them off. The fear last forever that way.” 

“Yeah okay I’m going to now.” Standing up she let go of Aneleh’s hand and walked to the door. 

“Sister, thank you for seeing me, it helped more than you know.” Aneleh lay back on her bed. 

“We have to look out for each other that’s what sisters do.” Helena smiled as she walked out the door and awoke still standing in the bathroom. 

Walking out of the bathroom she found Warren and Jae sitting down at a lunch room table set up in the gym. Coming over to them Jae smiled and ran to her, “Helena you’re awake! When you passed out after we got here I thought you may be hurt.” 

“Naw, I’m tougher than that Jae. I was just exhausted from carrying you down the mountain all night.” She messed up his hair and gave him a hug. 

“Well it’s a good thing those Doom goons thought we died in the jet crash, but man I must have fell asleep after that cuz I don’t remember much.”  Rubbing his head he looked up and smiled. 

“That’s what happened actually, you were so exhausted from shooting at those ships that the excitement wore you out. You’re still a little kid y’know, you get tired easy.” 

Jae was slightly annoyed with her comment, “I am _not_ a little kid, I’ll be 14 soon and that practically makes me an adult.” 

“Whoa there big guy, until you turn 18 you are far from being a man. Don’t worry, I’ll whip you into shape soon enough.” Warren slugged Jae’s right arm. 

“Ow! Geeze take it easy will you, I just survived a jet crash.” Jae scowled and he rotated his right arm. 

“Suck it up. C’mon we need to go help the others outside. We could use your blue flames to help weld some seams.” Warren stood up as Jae followed him. 

“I’m going to find Layla and Carrie to see what I can do. It looks like Athena and my dad have it under control here.” Helena stood up and grabbed Warrens left arm. 

Looking at her, his face went soft and warm as she quickly kissed him. Her heart raced as the thing she had hoped for finally came true. Breaking the kiss and whispering in his left ear.  “When you get a chance, come find me. I want to talk with you.” 

Winking Warren smiled as Jae led him away, “Okay you two don’t forget we are fighting a battle here. I swear this is the most messed up love match I have ever seen.” 

Helena laughed as she walked over to Bruce, “Dad, do you have a moment?” 

Turning to her he looked stern, “What is it?” 

“I was in the bathroom cleaning up and I had a talk with Aneleh. I think things will be okay from now on.”  She put her hands in her front pockets. 

“Let’s hope so.” Turning back to the injured student he finished changing their bandage.

“Okay, well I’m going to find Carrie and Layla. Come get me if you need me.” Helena slowly turned as she walked out the gym door.


	12. Those Who Forget the Past

Helena wandered the halls of the school looking for Layla and Carrie when she passed the open gym door. Looking in she saw all the dead students spread out in neat rows and covered by sheets, some of them had blood soaking through them. The scene was almost too much for her to handle and she walked quickly away while tears dripped from her eyes. Turning a corner and leaning against a wall then slid down to a sitting position, her emotions were getting the best of her as she sobbed openly, covering her face with her hands.

“Helena.” A familiar voice came from her left, looking up she saw Bruce staring down at her. He slid his cowl back exposing stern blue eyes that had a glisten to them. “May I sit next to you?”

Nodding she whipped her as while Bruce sat with his knees bent, “What’s up?” Helena sniffed looking to her right.

“Did I ever tell you about my friend Rachel?” Bruce asked

“No, I’ve been rather busy lately. Who is she?” turning to face him she sat cross legged.

“Rachel was an old family friend. She was always at the mansion before my parents died. Her worked for my family and she was around my age so we would play together.  After my parents murder I was-lost but whenever I needed someone to talk to, to help keep me out of trouble Rachel. “Bruce spoke softly.

“She sounds like a really good, friend. Where is she now?” Helena leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees.

“Years ago, after she became assistant D.A. she was engaged to Harvey Dent.”

“Two-Face Harvey Dent?” Helena interrupted.

“Yes, it was also at this time a sadistic new criminal came out of the gutter.” Looking at the floor he scratched his chin.

“Who was it?” Helena’s eyes were fixed on him.

“Joker, at first we thought he was a common bank robber but there is nothing common about him. In later years he would refer to me as his illegitimate brother.” Gritting his teeth Bruce continued, “He duped the mob, blew up a hospital, and worst of all he killed Rachel.”

Helena grabbed his left arm, “He did what, how?”

“He kidnapped Rachel and Harvey then put them in two different locations. As I was interrogating him he told me where but he double crossed me. He gave me the location to Harvey and told me it was where she was. When I got there Harvey was surrounded by large drums of gasoline and a timer, I rescued him but not her. “Bruce’s voice cracked for a moment before regaining his composure.

“I’m so sorry-dad. It must be hard with her gone.” Helena moved herself closer to him, wrapping her arms around his leather clad bicep and leaning her head on his shoulder.

“At times I miss her, but there is one thing you have to remember if you choose to be a hero Helena, death will inevitably follow you everywhere you go. You will lose friends, you may lose family, and your enemies will always try to kill you.  The true question is are you willing to fight for the lives of complete strangers with the same intensity as you would fight for your friends and family?” His eyes gazed hard upon her.

Helena looked up at him then furrowed her brow as she pondered his question. “I often asked myself that many times, I know if Jae, Warren, or you were in danger I would turn the world upside down to protect all of you. With all I have experienced lately with the Legion of Doom it made me realize that someone needs to stop them before they kill more of my friends, classmates, or anyone else’s family members. If it means I have to die to saves thousands, I would do so without hesitation, granted I don’t want to die anytime soon.”

Bruce’s face softened as he looked into her eyes, “I have a feeling tha Aneleh would try her best to make sure that doesn’t happen either.” Standing up he extended his right hand to help her stand. “I have to go back to the injured, if you are still looking for Layla and Carrie they are in the front lawn growing medicinal herbs.” Pulling his cowl over his face he enveloped himself in his cap and walked back to the cafeteria.

Helena watched as Bruce walked out of sight before heading out to the front lawn of the school, looking around at the destroyed lawn pock marked with blast craters she saw a small group of green pants in the sunniest part of the field. Standing up from behind a plant mound she could see Layla pulling some herbs and handing them to Carrie who was quickly processing them into antiseptics and medicines.  

Walking to them Layla say Helena and smiled as she ran over to her, “Helena! Will told me you and Jae made it here! Thank god you are okay!” Hugging her Helena stood in awe of Layla’s excitement.

“Yes, we are okay Layla, thank you.” Breaking the hug she looked over the small garden, “I came to help you guys, what can I do?”

“Oh, well you’re just in time. Carrie has just finished another batch of antibiotics and my special wound paste. Can you take it to your father for us?” Layla pointed to a table that Carrie was working furiously at.

“Sure, then what after that?” Helena grabbed the items from Carrie and put them in a box.

“Well, come back here and we can pick more herbs and I’m also growing some fruits and veggies for everyone to eat.” Layla smiled.

“Okay, be back in a moment.” Helena left the field and walked to the cafeteria where she gave Bruce the medicines and with a smile walked back to the front lawn.

She spent the better part of the afternoon helping Layla with her gardening and bringing medicine to Bruce. On her last trip Warren came over to see her as she carried her tray.

“Hey beautiful, how’re you doing?” Smiling he folded his arms.

Looking up she smiled and leapt up to embrace him, covering his face in small kisses. “Oh my god, I’ve been waiting to see you all day!”  Hugging him again she started to cry again.

“Oh hey, c’mon now it’s okay.” Warren hugged her with his right arm and caressed the back of her head with his left hand.

Sniffing she looked him in the eyes, “I know, I just-when I saw you I was so happy you are alive and unhurt.”

Warren scoffed and smirked, “I think it will take more than a few missiles to take me out.”

“I wish that was true, I saw how many dead there are and they were all strong supers. Promise me you won’t be reckless when they come back again.”  Putting her left hand on his cheek she looked hard into his eyes.

“I promise, besides when the rest of the league arrives I may not even have to get involved. I’ll stay with you and Jae while they duke it out.” Smiling he turned to Layla and Carrie who were by now in tears after watching them. “Oh god, what’s your problem?”

Layla wiped a tear from her eye as Carrie used the edge of her sleeve before Layla answered, “That…was so sweet! I’m so glad I had the opportunity to witness that side of you Warren.”

Warren’s face went red with embarrassment, “Yeah shut up hippie.” Winking he grabbed Helena’s hand and led her off inside the school.

“Where do you think he’s taking her?” Carrie asked.

“You’re the one with the super vision, you tell me.” Layla smiled as she turned to work on the garden.

“I-I really shouldn’t.” Carrie stammered as she turned to her table. As she was mixing herbs she slowly glanced over her right shoulder and her eyes glowed red and she gasped, “Oh my lord!” Quickly she turned her head back to the table and her cheeks turned rosy.

“What’s wrong?” Layla stood up quickly looking to the sky.

Carrie quickly replied, “Nothing…nothing at all. I saw nothing at all.” A smile came across her face.

Layla looked at her then in the direction Helena and Warren went and her mouth dropped opened, “Shut-Up!”

It was at that moment that Helena and Warren came back onto the field holding Helena’s hand as she was clinging to his left arm. She had a disheveled look on her face and Warren refused to make eye contact with any of the girls.

“So…what did _you_ two do?” Layla asked in a knowing tone.

Warren, still not looking them in the eyes replied, “We had a talk.”

“We saw that, didn’t we Carrie?” Layla replied as she looked at Carrie with a grin.

“Oh yeah, we certainly did.” Carrie smiled as her face became rosy again.

Warren turned to Helena and kissed her quickly, “I gotta go fix something. I’ll find you later.”

Helena watched him walk quickly back into the school then turned to Layla and Carrie who immediately grabbed her arms and brought her close.

“Oh my God please tell me you two didn’t do what Carrie saw you do.” Layla urged.

Helena smiled, “Well, Let’s just say something did not _NOT_ happen, but I’ll leave it at that.”

“Let’s hope your dad doesn’t find out about that, if he does I wouldn’t want to be Warren.” Layla walked to her garden and bend down to tend to it as it grew up in front of them.

Helena’s eyes went wide as she looked behind her at the opening of the school door, she hadn’t thought of what her dad will do to Warren. To top it off she thought she saw a dark shadow move past the door in the direction he went. “Oh crap!”


	13. Understanding

Helena's thoughts were divided the rest of the afternoon as she continued her efforts with Layla and Carrie to make medicines and attend to the wounded. Throughout the day she noticed more and more members of the Justice League arriving at the school. While some came to help with repairs like The Flash and Red Tornado, others came with new defensive weapons and shielding for when the Legion of Doom makes its second attack. Helena knew that the school took a significant amount of damage but the same could be said about Doom or else they would have finished the job by now. 

As Helena passed by one of the large defensive guns she saw Mr. Medulla working on the installation of a new laser cannon, his large head moved quickly back and forth as he toiled away. She could see he was sweating and walked over to him with a large towel, "Mr. Medulla, you look like you need this."

"Ah, Helena! Perfect timing, may you hand me that torque wrench?" Medulla pointed to his left at his tool box. Walking over to the box and grabbing the tool she handed it to him as he continued, "So what were you saying?" 

"I saw that you were working over here and I thought that maybe you needed a towel to keep the sweat out of your eyes." Helena extended her arm with the towel in her hand. 

"I would love to have the town but if I stop working I may not get this cannon online in time for their next assault, every moment counts my dear." Medulla responded in his usual quirky tone. 

Helena thought for a moment then walked over to a chair and slid it over behind Mr. Medulla. Standing over him she took the towel and folded it over his head and tied it tightly to his head. "There, that should keep the sweat out of your eyes." Getting off the chair she pats him on the back and continued to the gym where Bruce monitored the injured students. 

Walking into the gym she saw he was talking to Aquaman, Flash, Diana, and Red Tornado over by one of the tables. They all looked at her as she set the new batch of medicine on a nearby table, smiling she was about to leave when she heard her name called. 

"Helena, may I have a moment please?" Red Tornado's mechanical voice was deep and melodically. 

Turning to face him Helena had a nervous feeling as she walked back to him, "Yes, what can I do for you?"

"I was just informed of your experiences with The Legion of Doom and the acts of your alternate personality, Aneleh. How did she come about and why does she choose the times she makes her appearance?" His expressionless red face looked down at her. 

Helena was taken aback by such an abrupt question, but gathering her thoughts, "She only comes out when I or anyone I care about is in danger. What she did on the mountain was in defense of me and my brother Jae, I mean Jason." 

"So would you say she is a derivative of your more primal functions?" Red Tornado rested his hands on his hips, his towering metallic frame eclipsed hers. 

"At first I thought so, but it seems she is a completely different individual that lives within me. We have our issues but since we share the same body she will defend it if we are both in danger." Helena looked confidently at the eye slits of the robotic hero. 

"I see, and when she takes over what is the experience like for yourself? What happens to Helena when Aneleh is in command?" 

"Well, it's kinda fuzzy, but I think I go to her house and wait it out." Helena looked to the left as she tried to remember. 

"Her house?" Red Tornado seemed confused by the statement. 

“Aneleh’s home, It's a construct in her mind." Bruce replied

"Ah, I see." Turning back to Helena and looking down. "Would you consider Aneleh dangerous?" 

"Well, not intentionally. She lacks discipline, although a very skilled fighter, rage often takes over in intense situations. Aneleh does what it takes to ensure our survival, things I wouldn't do." Helena's look softened a bit as she remembered the mountain. 

"So, do you think that you can control those urges Aneleh gets? Moreover would you like to control those urges?" Red Tornado folded his arms. 

"What do you mean?" Helena gave a suspicious look to the red giant before her. 

"I believe though a course of exercises you can call on Aneleh's power and strength yet maintain your composure. Would you be interested in trying?" he asked. 

"How will it affect Aneleh?" Helena's eyes filled with concern, she may not like everything Aneleh does, but she is a part of her. 

"If my summation is correct she will still exist, but on more of a cooperative level." He reassured. 

Helena thought for a moment, "Okay, I'm game but we have to take this to an isolated location. I don't know how she is going to react to a cooperation suggestion."

"We can take you to the auditorium, there isn't anyone there and we aren't utilizing it at the moment. Diana we will need you to lasso Helena in case Aneleh has an adverse reaction." Bruce addressed the group. 

"One thing before I forget." Helena paused, "She is getting stronger, do you think her rope will be strong enough?" 

"This rope was given to me by my mother and to her by the Goddess. It is unbreakable, have no fear." Diana replied. 

"Let's hope so." Helena sighed. 

"Mind if I tag along? This will be an amazing experience!" Aquaman asked. 

"We may need you in case she throws a tantrum." Bruce quipped. 

"Ha! I know how to handle children old chum!" Aquaman slapped Bruce's back and Bruce shot him a dirty look as they went out the doors. 

Walking to the auditorium Helena was followed By Red Tornado, Bruce, Diana, and Aquaman, forcing the doors open they walked into the cluttered area. Most of the seats had been dislodged from their bolted positions and were strewn everywhere. Walking to the stage Batman cleared a space for Helena to sit down. "Now I want you to talk to her, get her to see the positives of this and the danger we are in from the Legion of Doom, maybe that will convince her." 

"I'll try, maybe she will be in a good mood." Helena smirked. Bruce looked to Diana who in one quick movement lassoed Helena to the chair. Closing her eyes and taking deep breaths Helena found herself in front of Aneleh's house. Walking to and opening the front door she looked around. "Aneleh, where are you?" 

"Here, kitchen." A muffled voice replied. 

Walking into the living room the kitchen was on the left, squatting down in front of the refrigerator eating some ham on the bone. "What do you want?" Aneleh asked between bites. 

"Well, I need to talk to you about something important can you come into the living room?" Helena gestured with her right hand in the direction of the living room.

Aneleh gave her an annoyed look as she stood up and carried the ham with her into the next room and sat on the arm of the torn couch. "Okay, what?" 

"Well, remember those men you had to fight the other day, when you save Jae and me?" Helena watched Aneleh's eyes glisten for a moment and she nodded. "Well those men are coming back and in a larger group." 

Aneleh's eyes glowed bright yellow as she threw the ham in the kitchen, anger splashed across her face. "I'll kill them if they come near us!"

"Calm down! This is why I have come to you. I need you to lend me your strength to fight these men. Father says we need to cooperate to save-" Helena was cut short mid-sentence.

"Father said? Father! What does he know about anything? I know what he wants, he wants me to go away for killing those men and give you my power!" Aneleh stood up on the couch as rage started emanate from her body in a yellow haze. 

"No wait! He only wants-" Aneleh cut her off again 

"He only wants to keep me locked away! I didn’t want to kill them! I-I- I won’t have it! I'm going to see him!" Before she could react Helena was locked in the house as Aneleh made her way to the surface. 

As Helena's body sat slumped in the chair with the lasso around her Diana noticed her body twitch. "Bruce, she's moving," 

Bruce, Red Tornado, and Aquaman stood in front of Helena when Bruce spoke to her, "Helena, what did she say?" 

A tear could be seen dripping from her face and land in her lap, "Why do you want to get rid of me?" 

Bruce stood up straight and took a step back, "Aneleh. Where is Helena?" 

Her head still slumped forward she replied softly, "In my house, she told me you want her to have my strength but I know the truth." 

"What truth?" Bruce narrowed his eyes. 

Aneleh lifted her head, eyes bright yellow and screamed, "That you want me gone!" A yellow aura started to glow brightly from her as she growled, her small frame grew as hair covered her body. Straining against the lasso Aneleh's roars became more intense as she tried to free herself. 

"By the Gods, what is she?" Diana strained to keep the lasso tight around Aneleh who only seemed to get stronger each minute. 

“No Aneleh, that isn’t true.” Bruce approached her, “You need to calm down!” 

Aneleh growled, “I didn’t want to kill them! They were going to kill Jae!” 

“I know this, but you need to calm down so we can talk!” Bruce commanded. 

“STOP TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN!” Aneleh’s aura became brighter struggling to free herself from Diana’s lasso. Her roars increased with intensity when suddenly the rope flew into the air and Diana fell backwards from the release of tension. 

“I’ve got this my friends!” Aquaman announced as he went to subdue Aneleh when he was kicked backwards and slammed into the adjacent wall. 

“You do remember she defeated Bane, right?” Bruce said as he helped Aquaman to his feet. 

“I’ll calm her down.” Red Tornado said as he turned into a small tornado and surrounded Aneleh. 

Getting down on all fours Aneleh closed her eyes and growled while she drove her claws into the wooden stage floors. Looking up at the center of the vortex and seeing the robotic hero she grabbed a chair from the air and hurled it at him, causing him to crash in a row of seats. 

Standing up she felt the grip of two powerful arms lock around her, “That’s enough young lady!” Diana commanded. 

Aneleh swung her head back and slammed it into Diana’s forehead forcing her to release the grip. Quickly turning around Aneleh swung her claws as sparks came off Diana’s bracelets which each strike.

As she was going for another series of blows a hand grabbed her wrist, turning to look at who it was she saw Warren.  “Aneleh stop!” 

Seeing him Aneleh dropped to her knees and covered her face with her hands, loud sobs came filled the room. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry.” 

Warren knelt down next to her, “What’s wrong?” 

Turning to him she took her large arms and hugged him, face buried in his left shoulder, “They want to get rid of me because I killed the bad men.” 

“No they don’t, why would you think that?” Hugging her and looking into the tear filled yellow eyes. 

“They sent her to talk to me, what other reason do they have?” Aneleh asked. 

“We need your help, you are a powerful asset and when Doom comes to finish their attack you are going to be the one who ushers their defeat!” Aquaman boasted. 

“What we are trying to say is we want you to work with Helena, let her make the choices in a fight and you deliver the damage. Didn’t you tell her that you enjoy watching your enemies writhe in pain?” Bruce stood and glared at Aneleh. 

Sniffing she stared into Warren’s eyes, “Does this mean I can fight alongside you?” 

Warren smiled, “Yes, I would like nobody else at my side but you and Helena. We can protect each other and when this is over we can finally relax.” 

Closing her eyes and laying her head on his chest she sighed, “I’ll help…besides…I have more to protect now…” Aneleh passed out and slowly transformed back into Helena. 

Warren looked at her then Bruce, “What does she mean by that?” 

“I don’t know, but it looks like she will finally cooperate.” Bruce sat down on a row of seats. 

Suddenly sitting up Helena gasped, “What the hell did she do this time?” 

“She agreed to work with you.” Warren smiled as he looked in her eyes.

“She did? What changed her mind?” Helena asked. 

“I guess the idea of fighting and defeating her enemies was a big motivator.” He smirked, “That was your dad’s idea. 

Helena smiled, “Well that will do it. What now?” 

“We rest for now. I need to commence repairs to my outer casings since she threw a chair at me.” Red Tornado slowly pilled the chair from his chest sparks came out of the hole. 

“Sorry about that.” Helena said embarrassed. 

“Okay let’s get out of here I need to see who’s still arriving from the rest of the Justice League.” Bruce stood up and pulled his cowl over his face and left the auditorium followed by the rest of the heroes. 

Warren helped Helena to her feet, “She did say one thing that has me worried.” 

“What was that?” Helena stopped and looked at him. 

“I’ll tell you later. Let’s get back.” Wrapping his arm around her they walked out the auditorium.

 


	14. Roll Call

Helena and Warren were sitting on the broken steps that led to the main doors of the school, her head leaning on his right shoulder. She was always exhausted after Aneleh makes an appearance and all she could do was dwell in her own thoughts as Warren rested his elbows on his legs staring at the few patches of grass left. A rumbling noise could be heard below them and with a slow movement the school rose from the ground, but not very high. 

The low hum of the antigravity units made Helena feel better knowing that things are slowly going back to normal. A second buzzing noise came from behind the school as the defensive shields slowly enveloped it leaving a low hissing sound that faded to nothing. 

“Looks like they made some progress, we should go find your dad and see what else we can do to help.” Warren stood up and extended his right hand which Helena took. Walking down the hallway they came to the café but only saw Layla watching over the injured. “Where’s Batman?” 

“He is with the rest of the arriving League members in the auditorium. I think they are going over defensive plans or something.” Layla said as she attended to one of the electric elementals that survived tha tower attack. 

Leaving the cafeteria Warren and Helena came to the closed doors of the auditorium and opened them. Standing before them were a vast majority of the Justice League members. The pair froze in their tracks as the crowd turned to look at them before Bruce spoke, “Just who I was waiting for, you two come up here. “ He commanded. 

Walking past heroes such as Green Arrow, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Black Canary, Zatanna, and 30 others they made their way up the steps leading to the stage where Bruce stood. Next to him were Diana, Clark, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Red Tornado, The Flash, and J’onn. Helena’s eyes lit up as she smiled when she saw J’onn, he looked at her and smiled before projecting his thoughts, ‘I am glad you are safe but now is not the time for an emotional outburst.’ 

“Members of the League let me introduce to you my daughter Helena and Warren Peace. I invited them up here since they have been key in the recent developments involving the Legion of Doom.” Bruce announced.

Green Lantern walked up to Warren and shook his hand, “Nice to meet you,  call me Hal. I’ve heard so much nice things.” Looking at Helena with his green eyes, Hal smiled. “You have your mother’s looks.” 

Bruce coughed, “That’s enough pleasantries Lantern. We need to attend to business.”  Slowly a screen came down from behind them as they moved to the sides of the stage. A satellite image of the area showed a large number of vehicles and ships surrounding the landscape within a ten mile radius of the school. “As you can see were are now fully surrounded by the Legion and aside from those of you who were able to make it to the school I suspect we are outnumbered in men and equipment.” 

“But what we lack in bodies we will make up in courage, right lads?” Aquaman raised his hooked right hand in triumph as a silent room looked at him. Bewildered he stood back and looked at the screen. 

“As you may have noticed we have partial levitation with the defensive shields at 75% of normal strength. I have Medulla working with other scientists from the league to increase that strength. However all the main cannons have been brought back online as well as the new rail gun Superman borrowed from the U.S. Army. That should give us a strength advantage with the larger ships, but reports indicate that they are massing a large number of foot soldiers. We may be in for hand to hand combat with some of the most powerful individuals the League has ever encountered.” Bruce used a laser pointer at a section of the image. 

Superman stood forward and addressed the team members. “We are going to break into several units in which I and those you see on stage will command those units. Aside from Warren and Helena each unit will be in charge of any able bodied student during the ground operations.” 

Blue Beetle stepped forward from the rest of the members, “Wait, you are going to put us in to battle with junior heroes? Some of these haven’t experience battle until recently and not only do we have to face Doom we have to babysit them too?” 

Warren got mad and addressed the Blue Beetle. “Hey bug boy let me tell you something, these ‘junior heroes’ fought with everything they had and many paid with their own blood! So don’t give me that crap that you’ll have to babysit us because they will do more than you ever thought they could!”

“That’s enough Warren.” Bruce commanded. 

Warren looked at him then back to the Blue Beetle, his hands had a slight glow to them. 

“However abrupt Warren is correct. During the battle I fought alongside these kids and they had more guts and determination to help their friends than someone else their age. Without them we may have lost the school and them in the process.” Superman smiled as he looked back at Helena. 

“That’s all well and good Superman, but we are facing a far superior force and unless more of the Justice League can get here we are facing an Alamo type situation.” Green Arrow stood up addressing the stage.

“That’s why you all are here. Given your strengths, powers, cooperative and leadership skills you give our efforts at successfully defeating the Legion of Doom at 53.25%.” Red Tornado stepped forward on the stage. 

The crowd murmured as they looked at each other before Bruce stepped forward again. ”I understand your reluctance to enter a fight under prepared but this is the situation, so we have to use what we are given. I have sent word for all able bodied students to meet on the front lawn for their assignments, we are heading there now.” 

Leading the rest of the heroes off the stage Bruce was followed by the members of the league down the hall and out the main entrance to a lawn full of students. Helena felt overwhelmed by the amount of students that survived and are ready to put their lives at risk again.

As the teens were talking amongst them Bruce tried to get their attention but couldn’t be heard.  Hal then created a bullhorn with his ring and stuck it in front of Bruce’s face. “I said eyes front!”  The bullhorn squealed as all the students turned to face him. Hal smiled and shrugged his shoulders before Bruce addressed them again. “I know most of you are wondering why we called you out here and I won’t sugar coat it. The Legion of Doom is planning another attack on the school, very soon.” 

Some of the students gasped and some cries could be heard when Warren stood next to Bruce and grabbed the bullhorn. “Hey cool it you guys! I know you are scared, hell I’m scared but did you forget where we are and who we are? This is what we have studying for the last few years and now it’s time to show those Doom losers what we are capable of.” 

“But we have lost so many and they are so strong!” a voice proclaimed from the crowd. 

“Yeah so what? They may have gotten the drop on us with their surprise attack but now we know they are coming and we can show them our strength, show them that we aren’t some scared little kids they can push around. I want all of you to make them regret ever attacking this school and killing our friends! Fight not only for yourself but in memory of those who are laying in the cafeteria and the gym!” Warren raised his left hand into the air. 

The students broke into applause and shouted encouraging words as Warren turned and looked at Bruce, “Sometimes you have to know your audience.” 

Walking past he stood by Helena who was smiling. “My hero!” Helena smirked, Warren shook his head and looked back at the crowd. 

Bruce looked back at the two and then the crowd. “You will be assigned to a lead super and broken into different teams. Each team will have a lieutenant chosen by that super and we will form a perimeter around the school.” Bruce paused for a moment as if the scale of young faces suddenly hit him. “I want you all to look to the person to your left, your right. Don’t think of them as a classmate because they are more than that. They are your brothers, your sisters and I want you all to protect each other like they are your family. This fight won’t be easy, not by a long shot, but if keep your wits and do what you are told then you’ll make it out alive.”  Turning around he looked at Red Tornado, “Get them into groups, I have a feeling we don’t have much time.” 

“I feel the same way. What of Warren and Helena, how should I assign them?” Red Tornado looked down at Bruce. 

“I think his little speech earned him a promotion, assign him some students and Helena will be his lieutenant. I’ve got to check on a few things but I’ll be back in 30 minutes.” Bruce walked into the main doors of the school and turned right down the hall. He had set up a mini Bat cave in one of the larger classrooms and turned on his computer monitor. Sitting down and looking at the screen the satellite images of the Legion of Doom’s troops came up, something was bothering him. They have been holding the same position for a couple days, why haven’t they made their move? Are they trying to build anticipation or fear? “Computer, zoom in on quadrants four, eight, two, and eleven.” The computer brought the images upon the screen and Bruce looked intently at them. Suddenly with wide eye realization he stood up and ran out the room.  Activating his com badge Bruce made his way to the front of the school, “Medulla, take the school up as high as it can go!” 

“What? I don’t know if we can go too much higher-“Bruce cut him off. 

“Just do it! Fix what needs fixing, we have to get some space between us and the ground!” Sprinting to the front of the school the students were being divided into groups. Superman and Red Tornado turned to him. “Underground! They are going to make their move from underground!” 

“What?” Superman quickly took to the air to get a full view of the area, using his X-ray vision and scanning the area he could see 15 underground boring machines were moments from breaking the surface around the school. “Squad three, to the air now!” 

Carrie, Athena, Will, and all other flying types with super strength flew into the sky and hovered next to Superman. Looking in every direction they could hear a low rumbling sound and as the school slowly lifted off the tips of spinning drill bits pieced the surface and 15 machines peaked and slammed to the ground in unison. 

“On my mark, take out those machines.” Superman ordered.

Watching the drilling machines they started to retract their drill bits, with metal on metal sounds each drilling machine changed into battle droids that reached 30 feet tall when standing. As the arms came to rest of the droids they changed into two large cannons and in unison pointed at the school.

“Now, take them out!” Superman commanded as the 30 students spread into six groups of five and went after each droid. A hail of laser fire surrounded each group, all of the students managed to get past and hit the droids. Superman took the arms off of two of them and split the machines in half. Will landed next to another and kicked its left leg out from under it then grabbed it and threw it at three more droids causing a large explosion. Athena and Carrie each grabbed a droid and swung them into each other, tearing am arm off and using them as weapons to strike down three more.  

The remaining five droids grouped together and concentrated their fire on the students when Superman forced his way through the laser fire and destroyed them. Looking over the flaming wreckage he turned to the assembled students. “Get back into the school, the shields will protect us until they make their next move.” 

All of them flew back to the school and landed on the grass as the rest of the class cheered for them, when Green Lantern called from above. “Hey guys, looks like this dance isn’t over yet.”

Everyone looked and saw the sun reflecting off the metal armor of an approaching droid army of over 200 units approaching the school surrounded by hundreds of ground troops each led by a super villain. 

“Everyone, prepare for battle!” Bruce commanded.


	15. The Power of Will

“Team Superman takes the advance position! Team Batman prepare for ground assault, Team Lantern prepare for any incoming fire, protect the ground units!” Bruce commanded over the school loud speaker.

The students scrambled into their units, Warren and Helena were in command of a smaller combat squad of seniors. This squad consisted of the more powerful elementals from every element of rock, fire, electricity, water, and wind. “Okay everyone listen up! Odds are that we will face others with powers as equal as or stronger than our own so I want you to team together!” Warren commanded.

“What I understand from the first attack on the school they were able to target the different towers because there was a single amount of elementals in each tower. So what we want to do it team to opposing elements with each other.” Helena directed her fellow seniors.

“Okay so since Amanda Klein is a wind elemental we will team her up with Dave Hydro, since he is water elemental I am sure you two can find creative ways to work together. Allen since you are the one surviving electric element I want you to team up Tory, since he is water elemental you two should cause some damage to their machinery.” Warren directed the group when a voice came from behind him.

“So I guess that leaves the two fire elements to finish them off eh bro?” Jae walked towards the group with a smirk.

“What? No you are not fighting in this Jae!” Helena turned to look at him with a scowl.

“Why not? I am probably the strongest fire type here, no offence Warren. I can probably take out half of their equipment with a concentrated blast of-“Warren cut him off.

“Then what Jae?” Turning to face him Warren crossed his arms crossed. “You are aware you will probably kill people if you do that, are you prepared for that kind of burden?”

Jae looked down at the ground in thought as he replied.” If I learned anything over that last few days is I can’t think like I used to. Yes I don’t want to kill anyone but they do and I can reconcile my conscience later. Right now what is important is we use all our resources to make these jerks regret ever messing with Sky High and my family!”

“Fair enough, you stay with me, got that?” Warren smirked as he turned around.

“Warren, don’t you think we should talk about this?” Helena walked up and grabbed Warrens left arm, her face wore her concern.

“He’s right Helena, we need all the help we can, don’t worry he will be with me during the fight. Besides aren’t you going to be with us?” Warren lifted his left eyebrow.

“Well yes, but if something happens to either of you I can’t assure that Aneleh won’t…you know.” Helena leaned and whispered in his left ear.

“Don’t worry, she told me she will work with you in this fight. We have to trust that she will.” Warren turned to his unit members. “Okay let’s take the outer stairs and get to the front of the school with Batman’s unit!”

Running to the right of the school Warren lead the group with Jae and Helena close behind them. Coming to the edge of the school Warren pushed a button revealing a hidden key pad, entering a series of numbers a staircase slid quickly from the side of the school. Descending the stairs the unit used ropes to slide down the last 50 feet to the ground which Warren burned so nobody can get into the school that way.  Running to the front of the school Warren saw the distinctive pointed cowl of Bruce with Damian standing next to him.

“Warren, what is Jae doing with you?” Bruce didn’t look at him as the group assembled.

“He wanted to come, don’t worry we already had this talk and the after effects.” Warren replied roughly.

“Fine, he’s your problem. Helena, did you talk to Aneleh yet?” Bruce still remained focus on the approaching force.

Helena took a deep breath and closed her eyes, in her mind Aneleh’s bright yellow eyes and a toothy grin stare back at her. Opening her eyes Helena responded, “She’s foaming at the mouth.”

“Let’s just hope she remembers her promise.” Bruce grunted.

Helena felt her throat tighten up and Aneleh’s voice came out.” Don’t worry about me _father_ …I remember my words.” Helena shook her head and coughed. “Dammit Aneleh warn me next time!”

* * *

Superman and his flying unit hovered above the school, using his long distance vision he could see an advancing flying unit of Legion heavy hitters coming their way. With him was Will Stronghold, Athena, and Carrie. “Okay everyone, we are going to meet them head on, we can’t let them get to the school. Try and lead them away from the school as best you can and don’t let them get involved with the ground forces. Let’s go!” Superman led the first counter attack against the enemy forces. In a triangle formation they jetted across the open field to the approaching flying enemy.

At the lead of the Legion’s attack force was Black Adam, the original Champion of Shazam, behind him was Livewire and to her left was Queen Bee. The last of the flying villains was Silver Banshee and Superboy-Prime who had a grudge with Superman and any flying type who helps him.

Stopping about 30 feet from each other Black Adam addressed them. “You call this your army Superman? Why not spare their lives and surrender?”

“You know we can’t do that Adam. The Legion has taken this too far, killed innocent children-“ Superboy-Prime cut him off.

“No, you killed them! If they would have surrendered the first time then none of them would have died!”  He hovered with clenched fists.

“No you’re wrong! We were minding our business when you attacked us! We have the right to defend ourselves!” Will shouted at Superboy-Prime who glared back at him with murderous intent.

“This all pointless banter Adam, let’s just kill them and get to the school.” Queen Bee sounded bored and annoyed.

“You’re right, sorry old friend but you won’t stop us this time!” Black Adam looked over both shoulders.

Superman prepared for their attack. “Not going to happen Adam.”

In a flash Black Adam was upon Superman and the two began to punch each with thunderous blows  as Superboy-Prime gave chase to Will. Silver Banshee gave chase to Athena while Queen Bee went after Carrie.

Will took off as fast as he could to lead Superboy-Prime away from the others and the school while he thought of a way to fight someone as strong as Superman.  “Hey kid, why are you running away? I won’t hurt you. I’ll protect you from the real enemy in this fight. C’mon kid don’t make me teach you a lesson in respect.” Superboy-Prime tried to negotiate as he flew after Will.

“I’m not running away, I’m flying away. As for who the real bad guys are around here all I have to do is look around. If you are sworn to protect the planet why not take out all those Doom characters down there.” Will turned and flew backwards as he watched the younger clone of Superman follow him.

“You got it all wrong, the Legion has a bad reputation given to it by the supposed Justice League. Trust me those people aren’t interested in justice, they will betray you at any given moment.  You can’t trust them, you _can_ trust me.” Superboy-Prime tried to hide his agitation as Will kept flying.

“Yeah right, everyone here has and will give their lives to protect others, can you say the same?” Will scoffed.

Superboy-Prime became visibly angry. “That’s it! I’m tired of all the lies spewing out your mouth! If you won’t surrender I will be forced to kill you!”  With clenched fists he accelerated toward Will who quickly turned around and flew as fast as he could.

Looking over his left shoulder Will could see Superboy’s eyes glowing red about to fire a heat blast. Will quickly spun to his left while narrowly avoiding each shot. Scanning the ground for anything that could help him slow down or disable Superboy, Will dove down into the forest to get some extra cover and protection. Weaving between the trees he could hear the smashing of lumber as tree after tree fell from the heat blasts. Will felt something in his front left pocket and pulling the item out it was a dagger with a kryptonite blade. “How’d this get here?”

“Stop running away and fight me!” Superboy-Prime demanded while his frustration grew as a succession of heat blasts came from his eyes.

“I’ve got to find some sort of shield so I can use this thing.” Will muttered to himself as he put the dagger back in his pocket. To his left Will noticed some of the twisted metal cast off from the school crash landing. Setting his sights on a four foot piece of steel Will swooped down and grabbed it. 

Flying backwards he turned to face Superboy when Will noticed he was gone. Looking around frantically he suddenly felt a strong embrace from behind. “Gotcha! You think you are so smart, now look at you about to be crushed. Got any smart assed comments before you die?”

Grunting Will turned to look behind him.” I wonder—which is thicker, your head or this steel plate!” Swinging the large chunk of steel into Superboy’s face the impact caused him to let Will go.

Covering his face momentarily Superboy quickly looked at him with extreme hatred when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Looking down the handle of the kryptonite dagger stuck out and his shaky right hand grabbed it. “Impossible—I am the savior of the world!”

Will hovered wide eyed at the shocked look on the face of his adversary who slowly descend to the ground. “You aren’t a protector when you try to kill innocent people.”

Superboy fell to his side and gasped for air. “So what does that make you, huh? You killed me, you took a life…”

Will folded his arm while looking down. “To quote a famous Vulcan, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

“Pathetic…” Superboy exhaled and closed his eyes.

Will looked down with pity as blood slowly leached out Superboy’s chest.  Going down to the ground he felt for a pulse and found none. Grabbing the dagger handle he broke the blade off and put the handle in pocket before flying back into the direction of Superman and the others.


	16. The Flames of Hell

Warren, Helena, Bruce, and Jae stood with 20 other students and watched the advancing ground troops marching towards the school. Warren’s heart began to race as he watched the expression on Jae’s face, the mounting fear and uncertainty was scrawled across it. Jae could feel the eyes of his brother on him and looked back giving a weak confident smile as he turned back to look at the enemy.

“Let them make the first move and don’t pay attention to the battle in the skies. Superman and the rest will have to figure out ways to defeat their opponents.  Remember, keep them away from the school, protect your friends, and make them regret ever attacking us.” Bruce announced as he took out a couple bat-a-rangs. Looking over at Damian in his full Robin garb Bruce looked back at Helena, Warren, and Jae then at the approaching enemy.

Helena could feel the tension increase around her when a slow rumble came from the enemy then a low scream from them as they could be seen running towards the school. Helena could hear Aneleh’s voice screaming in her mind, ‘ _If you can’t handle my power dear sister I shall take over and make them pay!’_ Helena narrowed her eyes and said aloud, “Remember our promise.”

The yells of the approaching forces grew louder when the long line of people came to a stop 50 feet from them. Bruce, Warren, Damian, Helena, and Jae stood in a defensive stance as they looked at the angry faces staring back. Out of the crowd came a sight that shocked and surprised Warren and Helena, Cheetah and Heat Wave walked a few feet ahead of the crowd. Cheetah was in her usual skin tight leopard suit, Heat Wave had the look of a cowboy, and he had on some blue jeans with rough brown chaps that had a pair of holstered flame guns hanging from his hips. He wore a light brown shirt with a fitted brown leather jacket and a pair of welders goggles hung from his neck as a sly grin spread across his face.

“Heat Wave! You son of a bitch, you dare show your face to me?” Warren Yelled as he walked forward only to be stopped by Bruce.

“Well looky here Cheetah! It’s the little brat of Baron Battle! My you sure look like your daddy, boy! So I guess he told you it was me who set him up all those years ago, eh?” Heat Wave folded his arms and smiled.

“Oh my, and look who is tagging along, that freak and her little pest of a brother. You are looking good darling. I can see your little transformations haven’t left you too hideous.” Cheetah quipped.

“Cheetah, I see you look as old as ever. I’m surprised they let you out of the old villain’s home to watch this.” Helena smiled.

“Why you little-“Cheetah was stopped by Heat Wave.

“Calm down Cheetah, she’s funny but we are here for business.” Looking at Bruce he continued. “Now look here Batman, you are outnumbered and outgunned 20 to one. Look around at all these battle hardened fighters who won’t hesitate killing these kids. Give it up and nobody else needs to get hurt.”

Bruce glared at Heat Wave and stood up straight.” I’ve been fighting you and your companions for a number of years Heat Wave and it has been my experience that your word isn’t always stellar. I will put my trust in these kids and their fighting abilities than your _word_.”

Heat Waves sighed and shook his head, resting his hands on his holstered guns, “Why Luthor thought we could negotiate is beyond me.” Reaching up he put his goggles on and pulled the guns from their holsters. “Cheetah, let’s boogie!”

Aiming his flame guns at Warren and Jae the two sides began their fight. Warren and Jae ran off to the right to draw Heat Wave’s flames away from the others and counter with their own flames. Warren shot a double shot of fire balls at Heat Wave while Jae fired a continuous stream of blue flames. With each of their attack Heat Wave countered their flames with his and turned it around at Warren and Jae.

“Whoo, you boys sure know how to wield the flame! A chip off the old block for sure! The blue flamed boy is a surprise, is he Barons boy too?” Heat Wave asked in between attacks.

“What do you think?” Jae fired off a large blue fireball at Heat Wave who was barely able to dodge it.

Heat Wave stood up and noticed his jacket was on fire. Patting it out with his gloved hand he gave an annoyed look at Jae. “Son, this was my favorite jacket. Do you realize how hard it is to fix damage like this?”

Jae smiled, “You know what they say about playing with fire.”

“Well the games are over now, kid.” Pointing his guns he fired a large flaming ball at Jae and Warren.

* * *

Helena watched the fight between Warren, Jae, and Heat Wave out of the corner of her eye as she and Bruce fought the large number of opponents one by one when Cheetah confronted her.

“Why are you still in that form? Let the beast out and give me a real fight!” Cheetah taunted as she walked closer.

“Are you really sure you want that? Aneleh has gotten stronger since our last run in.” Helena backed up, she had a slight smile on her face.

“Just shut up and let her out!”  Cheetah screamed.

“You want me you old woman, you got me!” Aneleh’s voice came out of Helena’s mouth as she shown with a bright yellow aura. Her hair flow in a swirling pattern as Helena’s body grew in size, her muscles became defined and her claws long and sharp.

From bright yellow eyes Aneleh had a toothy grin as Helena’s voice echoed in her head. ‘Remember don’t kill her.’

“Don’t worry…you will be surprised what people can survive” Aneleh spoke to herself.

“Who are you talking to?” Cheetah demanded.

With a laugh Aneleh replied, “The Devil….I told him to make a bed for you tonight!” Running at Cheetah she swung her claws with speed and great force, each strike barely missing Cheetah. “You’re getting slow old witch, I can smell your fear!”

“The only fear you smell is your own!” Jumping backwards Cheetah raised her right hand into the air. “Solomon!”

Looking behind her Aneleh could see a large, white mass stand up and step forward from the crowd, it was Solomon Grundy. Aneleh’s eyes went wide as she took a few steps back, memories of the beating she took at his hands nearly stole her courage and Cheetah could see that.

“Where is that cat girl Cheetah told Solomon Grundy about?” Looking around he saw Aneleh and anger filled his face. “You! You don’t have Superman to save you now!” Walking forward he was stopped by Bruce standing in front of her.

“Solomon, your fight is with me.” Bruce stood with his arms outstretched.

“I owe you from last time Batman. I will crush her after you!” Solomon Grundy gave chase to Bruce as Cheetah looked in disgust.

“Hey you giant fool, come back here and crush her!” Cheetah was visually agitated.

“You…tried to kill me?” Aneleh stood wide eyed as Cheetah turned to look at her.

“Yes you little fool!  Why else would I have brought him here?” Cheetah growled in agitation.

“You tried to kill me…you tried to kill _me!_ ” Aneleh roared as her yellow aura swirled quickly around her body.

Helena was slowly being forced downwards into her subconscious when she fought back, ‘Aneleh, Stop this! Remember our deal!’

Ignoring Helena she leapt high into the air, rage filled her face as her left arm swung down on Cheetah. The force of the blow brought the Leopard queen down to her knees and Aneleh kicked Cheetah onto her back and began a savage beating. Aneleh’s eyes filled with anger as she continued to strike Cheetah when Helena forced her to stop.

‘Aneleh stop!’ Helena’s voice echoed in her mind as her fist stopped midair.

Aneleh’s voice waivered with anger and fear,” She was going to kill me…us! I can’t allow it! I _won’t_ allow it, far too much is at risk to die!”

‘What do you mean? Father, Warren, and Jae can take care of themselves.’ Helena was confused by her statement.

“It’s more than that…it’s more than that.” Slowly standing up Aneleh stood over the unconscious Cheetah and looked over Warren and Jae.

* * *

Heat Wave ran to his left as he fired large balls of flame at Jae and Warren, each blast landed between the brothers forcing them to separate.  With a laugh Heat Wave launched two giant rings of fire around each that was so bright and tall they couldn’t see over them.

“Jae! Keep your eyes open, he’s using the flames as a shield!” Warren kept turning around and looked at the flames surrounding him.

“I kinda figured that out already Warren. Watch yourself too, he could pop up anywhere!” Jae stood in the middle of the ring of fire when they both heard Heat Wave laughing.

“Boy, you two think you got me figured out don’t ya?” Heat Wave’s voice sounded close to them.

“Shut up you murder!” Jae shot some of his blue flame into the direction of the voice but it just made the wall grow bigger.

“Jae stop shooting your fire, you’re only helping him.” Warren could see Jae’s fire ring grow above his.

Jae Looked up and around him trying to comprehend his situation when he was stuck from behind. The pain was so intense he dropped to his knees while grabbing the back of his head. Looking up with blurred vision he saw Heat Wave walking around him with a smile. “Stay put for a bit kid. I got to take care of your brother.” 

Walking in Warren’s direction Heat Wave separated the flames with a gesture from his right hand. Warren turned around quickly and saw Jae on his knees in pain. “Jae! What the hell did you do to him?”

“Oh, nothin’ too serious, I wanted him to watch me take you out is all.” Heat Wave replied.

“You think taking me out will be easy do you?” Warren lit his arms and intensified the flames as he stretched his arms out. Unleashing a large amount of flames in both directions he noticed Heat Wave was not impressed.

“Yep, now try not to cry in front of your brother, that would be embarrassing.” Heat Wave slowly walked towards Warren.

Before he could react Heat Wave had punched Warren in the gut doubling him over. Looking up he was struck on the side of the face forcing Warren to stagger to the right. Pain racked his body as Warren struggled to clear his head when he was stuck again in the head and kicked in the ribs. Warren screamed in pain as he felt the ribs on his left side break.

“Warren, get up!” Jae grunted as he tried to get to his feet.

Looking back at Jae then down at Warren, Heat Wave smiled. “Y’know what? I got a better Idea.” Kicking Warren to the ground Heat Wave walked back to Jae.

* * *

Aneleh and Helena watched the events unfold between Warren and Heat Wave. Images of the dream she had of this very moment filled their hearts with dread as all they could do was watch. Then something snapped the trance and Aneleh let loose a terrifying roar and with as much speed as she could muster ran towards Heat Wave.

As Heat Wave approached Jae, the boy attempted to throw a fireball but it was too weak and it was deflected. Looking down on Jae, Heat Wave bent over and grabbed Jae by the collar of his jacket and looked back at Warren and the fast approaching Aneleh. “I wonder how fire resistant you really are.” Lifting Jae over his head Heat Wave threw him into the surrounding inferno.

“NO!” Aneleh screamed.

Warren could only grimace in pain as he saw his younger brother pass throw the wall of flame but instead of screams of pain he heard something unexpected.

“You know, I would prefer you not throw my son into the fire like he was some piece of trash, Heat Wave.” Walking out of the flames came Baron Battle, he was holding a very surprised Jae who couldn’t break eye contact with his father.

“Baron, but how?” Heat Wave was at a loss when from his left side he was kicked to the ground.

Looking back Heat Wave saw Selina standing in her Catwoman gear and looking very angry, “You messed with the wrong family Heat Wave!”

Aneleh stood motionless at the sight of both Baron Battle and her mother protecting their children.

‘How did they get out of prison?’ Helena’s voice echoed in her head.

“Who cares, they are here now!” Aneleh smiled big, she was happy the dream didn’t true.

Baron walked over to Warren with Jae and put him on his feet, helping Warren up from the ground he never broke his gaze from Heat Wave. “Warren, take your brother and go with his mother back to the school. I’ve got some unresolved issues to settle here.”

“Baron, we want to stay and help you.” Warren grunted as he stood up.

“That’s admirable son but you aren’t much good to me until your ribs heal, this is my fight.” Baron started walking towards Heat Wave.

Turning around Selina got her first glimpse at Aneleh and stammered, of all the sights she had seen in her life Selina never expected to see her daughter like this.  However she knew now was not the time to dwell they needed to get out of the area. “Aneleh, come help me with these two.”

Aneleh quickly came to her mother’s side and helped Warren walk to a safe place. Looking at her mother Aneleh spoke. “Mother, it is good to see you.”

“It is good to see you too, Aneleh. Is Helena with you?”  Carrying Jae Selina looked to her daughter.

“Yes, she is here.” Aneleh’s voice changed to Helena’s “Yes mom, I’ve been watching everything, how did you get out of prison?”

“We will talk about this later. We need to get these two medical help. C’mon, let’s get back to the school.”  Celina started to run towards Sky High.

Turning to look back at Baron facing off with Heat Wave she wondered how it would turn out. Helena quickly turned around and ran after her mother back to school.


	17. Pain and Consequence

Baron Battle and Heat Wave glared at each other as they circled the flaming earth below their feet, Heat Wave smirked as he spun his guns in half circles in each hand.  Baron’s face was expressionless but his eyes had murderous intent as his hands ignited with flames.

“Well now, isn’t this a happy reunion. Here I thought you were locked up for several life sentences yet here you stand before me. How’d you do it eh Baron? Grease a few palms, sexual favors?” Heat Wave grinned as he continued to spin his guns.

“All part of the plan Heat Wave, I know it’s a bit difficult for your small mind to comprehend but the Justice League knew it was you all the time. They knew the Legion had something planned and wanted them to believe it was working.” Looking around him Baron looked back at Heat Wave, “I never imagined you would go this far.”

“See that’s where your vision is limited Baron old pal. The Justice League is a group of dreamers who believe we can all live together in peace and harmony. That’s a load of horse crap and you know it, look at how they put you on public trial, ruined your reputation, and locked you away for something they know you didn’t do.” Heat Wave tried to appeal to Baron’s sense of reason as his voice grew agitated.

Baron shook his head, “You still don’t get it, I chose to be put away not only to fool those idiots you work for but to protect my sons.”

“Oh really know? A lot of good that’s done them, they grew up hating you and after their pathetic attempts at fire wielding they nearly got themselves killed if you and that bitch hadn’t show up.” Standing still Heat Wave focused on Baron who had a very angry look on his face.

“Well you aren’t dealing with them anymore you piece of trash.  I’m going to incinerate you.” Baron quickly lifted his arms and unleashed a huge amount of flames towards Heat Wave who ran to dodge them but the flames split in two and surrounded him. Jumping out of the flame ring he shot a large number of fireballs at Baron who deflected each shot, he had surrounded himself with a circling wall of flames and it seemed alive. 

Baron stood in one spot as Heat Wave knelt down with one gun drawn. He was out of breath and had a stern look on his face. “I see you’ve been practicing some new techniques old friend. You sure are making this interesting.”

“Truly, _old friend,_ when you have a lot of time on your hands you tend to learn a thing or two.” Fire slowly orbited Baron as he smirked.

“Look, Baron I just want to say that what happened back then, it wasn’t personal. I was following orders and I was young looking to put my name out there.” Heat Wave rested his right arm on his knee.

“What? Not take it personal? You murdered a large number of innocent people in an effort to make a name for yourself and you expect me not to take it personal? I take it _very_ personal!”  The swirling flames exploded in fast spinning tornado and hurled in Heat Wave’s direction. He was barely able to dodge it as he ran in an arch then ran into the crowd of Doom soldiers.

Heat Wave was using the members of his squad as cover, looking behind as he ran Heat Wave saw Baron’s flames weaved through the quickly spreading crowd as it avoided everyone. “Crap, this old boy’s going to fry me if I don’t think of something fast.” He uttered to himself. Reaching into a pouch on his belt he took out a smooth round grenade, it was red and had the number 5 labeled on the side. Pulling the pin Heat Wave quickly spun around and heaved it towards Baron.

As the grenade rolled to Baron’s feet he looked down and his eyes went wide. The explosion created a large bubble of flames so intense and large it circumference an area of 50 feet.  As quickly as it exploded the large fireball disappeared and Heat Wave turned to see who was left of his opponent.  Slowly walking towards Baron with his guns drawn the crunching sounds of his boots mingled with the crackling of the smaller fires around him.

Suddenly a pillar of fire exploded 40 feet into the sky as Baron walked out of the crater created by the grenade, his eyes were white and flames pulsed up his arms and swirled around him. “That tickled...my turn!”

* * *

Quickly climbing the staircase that was outside of the school Selina and Aneleh carried the injured brothers to the top of the school rim and onto the grass field. Running in the main doors of the school they saw Layla attending to the incoming wounded that entered the cafeteria.

“Where do you want them?” Selina stood looking around the room at the hustle of people coming in and out.

“What’s wrong with them?” Layla yelled from across the room.

“Broken ribs and muscle injuries.”  Selena sounded annoyed.

Layla walked over to them and looked at Jae, “Put him on that table, as for Warren he should be healed up within the hour.”

Selina looked surprised. “He has accelerated healing?” 

“Him and Jae both, think of it as a gift from their father. Jae’s isn’t as advanced but he should be good to go in an hour…if we survive that long.” Layla turned to help another student.

Aneleh lay Warren down on the floor as he grunted.  Looking at the pain in his eyes she felt anger building up when Selina rested her right hand on Aneleh’s left shoulder. “Calm down dear, I know how you feel.” Aneleh turned with a forlorn look on her face as Selina rested her right hand on her cheek. “Whenever your father and I ever fought either each other or together it always torn me apart inside, but today we need to take that pain, that hate we feel when someone we care about gets hurt and redirect it as our strength.”

“Look what happens to me when I let my strength out mother, I change into this.” Helena’s voice came forth as she directed her hands up and down her changed form.

Selina took her hand and squeezed it. “Don’t look at your sister as a negative, she is you and you are her. By working together like you have the two of you have accomplished more than you could do apart. Given more time it will become second nature to cooperate and you will be glad you did.” Standing up Selina put her goggles back on. “Let’s go help your father take out that undead creep, you have a score to settle with him don’t you Aneleh?”

Aneleh’s eyes glowed brightly and a toothy grin came across her face.” He will wish he could die when I get done with him.”

“That’s my girl! Layla send those two back down to our location once they finish healing up, let’s go!” Selena and Aneleh both ran out the room and back through the school. Exiting the building they ran across the field and down the stairs.

 Jumping to the ground with a grunt Aneleh caught her mother and gently set her on the ground.  Looking around Aneleh saw in the distance the fight between Bruce, Damian, and Solomon Grundy, throwing her mother on her back the two ran to help.

* * *

Bruce led Solomon Grundy away from Aneleh as the raging beast ran screaming behind him. Damian crouched behind a large rock and waited for them to pass before leaping onto the large creature’s back. Reaching behind him Solomon Grundy tried to take him off when Damian wrapped a couple of steel cables on white demon’s neck and swung off of him causing the giant to lose his balance.  Taking the cable ends he shot them into a couple large rocks and a mechanical wench drew them tight. As the beast stood up Bruce shot two more cables around his lower legs and those fastened into the same large rocks.

“Do you think that it will hold him?” Damian said as he stood next to Bruce.

“No, but it give me time to prepare the next weapon. Heads up he’s almost free.” Bruce grabbed a large capsule from his belt and attached it to the tip of his weapon launcher.

Solomon Grundy roared as he tried to free himself of the steel cables as one by one they broke free from the large boulders. Grunting he glared at both of them. “Batman and bird boy will die for hurting Solomon Grundy! Solomon Grundy will eat their hearts!” Taking the steel cables from his neck he swung them in long broad sweeps at the two heroes who dodged them.

“Dammit, if I knew he’d use them as a weapon against us I’d never would have used them.” Damian said as he rolled out of the way.

“Don’t dwell on that, keep a sharp mind and eye. If he hits you with that you won’t have to worry about much.” Bruce jumped and threw some explosive grenades then five bat-shaped throwing stars in Solomon Grundy’s eyes and neck.

The creature covered his face and screamed in pain as he stepped backwards. Damian ran to grab a cable on the right leg when Solomon Grundy grabbed and threw him against the large boulder.  Three more explosives went off as Bruce ran and jumped to kick his face when Solomon Grundy grabbed his right leg and slammed him on the ground. He bashed Bruce against the same boulder he threw Damian against then across the ground.

As Bruce rolled to a stop he quickly looked in Solomon Grundy’s direction when behind him Aneleh jumped into the air, landing on the giants head and forcing his skull into the ground causing a large dust cloud. Sliding across the ground she crouched in front of Bruce and growled. Selina got off Aneleh’s back and knelt by her injured friend.

Looking up Solomon Grundy saw Aneleh and roared at her, Aneleh stood up and roared back at him with as much savagery. Getting to his feet Solomon Grundy ran towards her as Aneleh sprinted in his direction, rage filled both of their faces.

“I will crush cat girl like I did before!” Solomon Grundy raised a large right hand to slam a punch on her when she deflected it and landed a hard upper-cut to his jaw sending his head backward. Grabbing his wrist Aneleh swung his body into her right knee, as he bent over she drilled his head.

As Solomon Grundy hit the ground Aneleh jumped high in the air and stomped his head repeatedly into the ground. “How do you like it huh? How do you like being repeatedly slammed and be completely helpless?” Aneleh growled with each stomp.

As she was about to stomp again Solomon Grundy grabbed Aneleh’s left ankle throwing her off of him. Standing up and growling he wiped the dirt from his face when out of the background four sets of bolos wrapped wire around his upper body, arms, upper thighs, and lower legs then tightened. Instantly a large amount of electricity flooded his body as he screamed and fell to the ground unconscious.

Aneleh, Bruce, Selina, and Damian looked in the direction the weapons came from and saw a large amount of men and women in dark clothing, faces covered except for theirs eyes, all but one woman.

Damian squinted as he looked at her. “Mom?”


	18. What a Father Does.

Looking down at Damian was Talia al Ghul, leader of the League of Shadows, and his mother. “We are in battle Robin don’t call me by that name.” Looking over at Bruce and Selena she jumped down and walked over to them with Damian in tow. Talia’s men were taking care of Solomon Grundy and any Legion foot soldiers that got in her way when she stopped and crossed her arms. “Bruce…Selena it looks like you have quite the fight on your hands.”

Bruce looked up through his cowl and without missing a beat slowly stood up. “Late as always, but welcome, what are you going to do with him?” Bruce pointed at the disabled Solomon Grundy.

Looking behind her and then back at Bruce Talia smirk. “We are going to bury him deep.”

“Let’s hope it holds him. Did you bring the Lazarus solution?” Bruce held his right hand out as Talia opened a pouch attached to her belt and took out a small syringe. Placing it in his hand Bruce gave himself the shot and within seconds his bones healed, bruises went away and he was stronger than ever. “Take your men and deliver the rest of the shots to every wounded fighters and students. We are going to need them all to defeat the Legion of Doom. Selena, go with her and help distribute the shots.”

“Excuse me darling, but I don’t take orders.” Selena rested her hands on her hips as she took offense at Bruce’s order.

“Don’t do it for me, do it for those kids and your sons.” Bruce glared with his steely cool blue eyes.

“Well…if you put it that way.” Looking at Talia she smirked. “Come Talia, this will give us time to catch up on old times.”

“Hey, what about me?” Damian stood with his arms extended.

Talia took a syringe and tossed it to Damian. “Stop complaining and get back to the fight.”

Damian took the syringe and himself the shot while muttering. “Good to see you too mom.”

Aneleh slowly walked up behind Damian and rested her left hand on his right shoulder. “Don’t worry little bro, she is only being tough on you because she cares.”

Shrugging her hand off his shoulder Damian walked towards Bruce. “That kind of love nearly got me killed.”

Bruce turned around and observed the battle on the field with his students when a large fireball erupted from the direction of Baron and Heat Wave’s battle.

* * *

Heat Wave had a look of disbelief as he back away from Baron with both his guns pointed nervously at him.

“What’s the matter old friend? Did you think that small amount of flames would even singe me a little?” Baron squinted his eyes as he held up his right hand and made a small gap between his index finger and thumb. “Well, let me show you what real flames can do!”

Snapping his fingers a trail of fire encircle Heat Wave as panic began to fill his face.” Baron, please don’t do this! We can work together, become partners! I didn’t intend for you to go to jail when I killed all those people, I was just following orders.”

“You didn’t intend for me to go to jail for killing all those people? How about you shouldn’t have killed all those people to begin with? You took away all those people had and all they will ever have to satisfy more than an order but your sick need for chaos. I’m going to cure that disease you have and the best way to kill anything is with fire!”

The flames swirled faster around Heat Wave until he was no longer visible.” You better make sure you kill me Baron! If you don’t I will hunt you down and destroy everything you hold dear!”

“Famous last words…” Baron raised both arms in the air which turned the spiraling flame into a gigantic pillar of fire so intense and powerful Heat Waves screams lasted only a second before the roar of the flames was the only sound heard. Lowering his arms the flames disappeared and all that remained was the charred husk of a body.

“Dad!” Jae’s voice could be heard from behind Barron as he turned around to see the brothers standing together with Selina and Aneleh.

“You guys finally healed have you? Well we have a lot more fighting to do so let’s go!” Barron walked towards the large number of heroes, students, and Legion fighters were struggling for control of the field.  

“I’m going to go help at the school, come Aneleh I will need you for this.” Selina gestured as she walked back to the school.

Looking back Aneleh turned to Warren and gave him a hug.” Be safe and watch Jae.”

“Don’t worry about us, go help your mom. We can handle these goons.” Warren hugged her and kissed her before following his father and brother.

Jumping into the fight Baron, Jae, and Warren punched their way through the Legion fighters, Baron used his flames to injure his enemy enough for them to withdraw from the fight.

Baron turned to see both Warren and Jae back to back, flames arching as each held their enemy at bay when suddenly a large explosion came from his left. It was a rocket and as he followed the direction it came from Baron's eyes widened.

A mile in the distance he could make out 10 walking battle tanks, each three stories tall with two large laser cannons on each side of them and shoulder mounted rockets. As they approached the school they unleashed a hailstorm of laser blast that caused large scale damage the grounds around the school as the blasts were deflected off the shields. Everyone around the school scatters to avoid being hit by the deflected laser fire as Baron scanned the skies for any help. He saw Superman was tied up fighting Dark Adam and his army, Wonder Woman was in a dogfight in the skies, and Batman was busy getting people to safety at the school. Looking at his son's Baron came to a conclusion that he knew was the only option, "Warren, take care of your brother for me."

Warren looked at his father and knew what he was planning, "Don't be a hero at a time like this!"

"Son, by now you should know I was never a hero. Besides, I'm not doing this for me." Looking at Jae he smiled then turning around approached the walking tanks. When he was halfway between the school and the giant machines he stood still and extended his right arm then placing his left hand over his right wrist.  Baron ignited into a large ball of white flame 12 feet round that swirled around him as he stood in the middle of the inferno.  Baron had a determined look on his face as he built his power level up bringing the size of his ball to over 50 feet in diameter.

"Dad don't do it, If you fire that off you’ll die!" Jae ran towards him only to be held back by Warren.

They both backed away as the fireball grew larger to 70 feet, through the roar of the flames Baron yelled "I know what I'm doing Jason! I'm already a dead man in the public’s eye why not make it a reality?" The fireball grew to 100 feet in diameter when Baron looked over his shoulder and smiled before turning back then released the firestorm. The blast from the explosion forced anyone on the ground to fly 30 feet in all directions as the fireball expanded its blast range to a mile as it destroyed everything in its path. Walking tank, vehicle, ship, and any person unlucky enough to be in the blast was instantly turned to ash or disfigured steel. When the explosion subsided both Warren and Jae saw their father drop to his knees then fall to his left side.

"Father!" Jae ran to Baron’s still body with Warren close behind him. Jae pulled Baron on his back and cradled his father’s head as Warren stood over them. Baron slowly opened his eyes and looked at Jae, smiling he lifted his left hand and wiped the tear off Jae's right cheek. He then looked at Warren and smiled as his eyes slowly closed, his arm dropping to the ground in a cloud of dust. Jae sat there looking at his father’s face as wave after wave sadness flowed over him when something seemed to snap inside him.

Gently laying his father’s head on the ground Jae stood up and could see more of the walking tanks approaching, turning to Warren he had a contemptuous look on his face. "Do you see them? They won't stop! Even after what father did they keep coming!" Turning around Jae stood in front of Baron's lifeless body and extended his right arm in the same direction.

Warren grabbed Jae and turned him around, "Are you stupid or something? You can’t do what he did, it killed him what do you think will happen to you?"

Jae's eyes were filled with anger and tears, "I won't let his death be in vain! If you are that concerned for me join me in destroying them. We are the only ones capable of wiping them out and surviving."

Warren looked into his brother’s eyes and saw that he was determined to do it with or without him. "Okay but if you feel like you are taking too much energy you stop."

Without a word Jae turned around and extended his right arm again, Warren stood 10 feet to his left and extended his right arm as well. Each of the brothers produced a fireball that floated at the end of their arms, Jae's was bright blue, Warren's was yellow. Slowly they spun and expanded until Warren's was 3 feet in diameter but Jae's went to 20 feet. "Are you okay Jae?" Warren asked.

"This isn't even half my strength brother," Jae quipped.

Warren’s eyes went wide at the realization that Jae had that much power. He knew he was strong but not how strong. Collecting himself he turned to the approaching forced "Fire!" In an instant they  unleashed fireballs of such magnitude that they produced a wall of fire 200 foot tall and 10 miles wide turning everything that remained into nothingness. Everyone on the field stood in awe and horror as the once large number of enemies was wiped clean from the surface leaving nothing but smoldering dirt.

Looking at each other Warren and Jae realized they had survived and didn’t feel the worse for wear when they saw a majority of the Legion forces running away from them. “We did it!” Jae jumped up and down and ran to Warren hugging him.  He looked at his brother with a big smile as they watched the groups of enemy fighters run away.

“Are you okay Jae? You don’t seem to be affected by the blast.” Warren said.

“It’s that shot Selina gave you. It contained water from the Lazarus pit.” Bruce’s voice came from behind them.

Turning Warren saw Bruce and Selina. ”Wait, are you saying we were injected with water from the resurrection tank tha Ras al Gul uses to heal all his injuries?” Warren glared.

“Correct, the effects are short term but they have the effect of enhancing the abilities of any super. In the case of you two it substantially increases your fire attacks without taking a significant amount of energy like it did your father.” Bruce turned to see Selina kneeling over the body of Baron as she caressed his dirty black hair.

“You stupid fool, if only you had waited for me to give you your shot.” Selina whispered as she held a syringe of Lazarus water. Rolling up his sleeve she injected him with the solution then stood up and looked down on him.

Slowly steam rose from Baron’s body as he twitched on the ground. Then as if a switch was flipped his body erupted into yellow flames as his eyes opened and he screamed in pain before dropping to the ground.  Lying motionless with his eyes barely opened he eventually blinked and took a deep breath as he slowly sat up and looked at his hands then at Selina. “How…who?”

“Dad!” Jae ran and nearly knocked his father over as he hugged him, tears streaming down his cheeks.

“It’s okay Jason, It’s okay.” Baron hugged him in return as he looked at Warren and Bruce.

“You knew it would revive him didn’t you?” Warren asked Bruce.

“I had a feeling that if it could work for one person it could work for others.” Bruce smirked. “Let’s get back to the school, if I know the legion they are going to bring out their heavy hitters next.”

Looking up at the fight between Superman and Black Adam Warren wanted to help them. “What about Superman?”

Looking up then back at Warren Bruce turned and walked away. “He’s got it under control. Kal El likes to play with them a bit before he gets serious.”

As Warren helped Baron to his feet and began the walk back to the school he couldn’t help but wonder what happened to Will, Carrie, and Athena.


	19. Regroup

The battle between Superman and Black Adam had become a test of wills as each man delivered blow upon devastating blow on each other yet none yielded to the other. Frustration was apparent on Black Adam’s face as all his efforts seem to stall and he wanted to end this fight.

“This is becoming pointless Superman, why waste our time with this stalemate of a battle?” Black Adam said as he glared at his opponent.

“I was going to ask you the same thing Adam. Look below you, did you not see the devastation your forces have taken? Leave now and tend to your wounded.” Superman’s gaze never broke from Black Adam.

Looking down Black Adam scanned the scene below and scoffed.” What do I care for them and their wounded?  I only agreed to help them so I could get a crack at you. “

Superman’s eyes narrowed. “Are you that determined to see who is strongest between us you would ignore the oath you took to preserve life?”

“Oath to preserve life Superman? I forsake that a long time ago and even after I did so I still retained my powers. As for who is stronger I am the strongest between us and there isn’t anything you or anyone else can do to disprove that fact!” Black Adam smiled as he extended his arms from his sides as a show of strength.

“Are you so sure about that Adam?” a female voice came from behind him and as he turned he saw Wonder Woman with her lasso of truth dangling from her hips.

“Yeah I think we might have what it takes to prove you wrong.” Another female voice came from Adam’s left as he saw Athena and Carrie hovering next to each other.

“I see you were able to defeat my teammates, a task that was not easy I am sure.” Black Adam scanned the grounds and did not see Livewire, Silver Banshee, or Queen Bee anywhere. “So I can only assume they were consumed in the flames of Baron’s brats.” Looking back at the two girls all they did was glare at him.

“No such luck for them Mr. Lightning Bolt, I took them prisoner after these ladies handed them their ass’ and they are in the possession of the League of Shadows.”  Will Stronghold came and floated next to Superman.

Black Adam’s expression went stern and he furrowed his brow. “So what now, you all come at me at once or do I get to kill you one at a time?”

“Surrender and we-“Superman was cut off when Black Adam flew at great speed and punched him in the face sending him rocketing across the sky.

Turning to a stunned Will Adam smiled.” He talks too much.” Before Will could react he felt intense pain in his chest as he too was sent soaring across the sky and it took him a few miles to compose himself long enough to stop his backward momentum.

Taking a second to clear his head Will flew back as fast as he could to see Superman had returned to the fight along with Carrie, Athena, and Wonder Woman. Each was flying at Black Adam and as one would land a punch he would land two yet they kept coming back like a swarm of bees protecting their hive. Joining in the attack Will finally felt the full power that Black Adam had and even though he was determined to stop Adam his heart was full with fear.

Finding an opening Black Adam took it and flew above them only to be closely followed. “This is starting to become annoying!”  Before he could speak further a blur of red and white came from above and smashed Adam to the ground. 

Adam slowly lifted his head from the crushed earth and looked over his right shoulder to see something he didn’t expect, the current Shazam.

* * *

Warren, Jae, and Baron walked slowly into the make shift hospital inside Sky High as 1000 set of eyes turned in their direction. Looking up Warren could see most were smiling while some had a look of fear and uncertainty. Helping Baron to a nearby cot they lay him down to rest.  “Stay here for a bit dad, you need time to recover.” Warren said.

“Don’t worry about me son, I just need another hour and I’ll be back at full strength.” Baron said with a smile as he closed his eyes to sleep. Jae stood next to his father and looked back at Warren who nodded and walked towards Helena and her mother.

“Will he be okay?” Helena asked, having reverted back to her normal form.

“Yeah, Jae’s going to hang out by him until he’s better.” Looking at Helena and grabbing her right hand with his left hand he smiled.” How are you feeling? I see Aneleh has gone back to her home.”

“She was tired and needed a nap, can’t say I blame her I need one too after each transformation she does.  To top it off I’ve been feeling sick all day and I don’t normally feel that way after she leaves.” Helena put her left hand on her stomach and made a sour face.

“Well maybe we should have Bruce take a look at you?” Selena suggested.

“No, I’m fine it’s probably the stress of all this fighting. I’ll be okay once we finish off the Legion and go home.” Looking around Helena searched for her father, “Where is Bruce anyways?”

“Probably at his make shift Bat cave, let’s go check.” Warren took her out to the hall and to the left. On the right was an open door and sitting at a desk with three large monitors sat Bruce in his Batman garb. On the screens were the positions of the Legion of Doom soldiers and equipment with a massive hole in the main force that Baron, Warren, and Jae had created.

“How’s it looking Bruce?” Helena asked as she walked behind him.

“The damage that Warren and his family inflicted was very effective. From what I can see the enemy forces and equipment have been knocked down by three quarters.” Bruce responded as he sat back in his chair.

“Well that’s good right? We should have no problem defeating them now.” Helena was optimistic that the end was near.

“Perhaps, but Luthor and the rest of the Legion of Doom council have yet to make an appearance.” Standing up and looking at them both his eyes narrowed. “If they show up then the real battle begins.”

Helena’s heart skipped a beat as the realization of what Bruce had said struck her. He was right, all that they had fought before was minor compared to the overwhelming power of the Legion of Doom council. Helena knew that if they were to win then needed to bring their A game or else all is lost.

“So what’s the plan? How do we stop villains of that magnitude?” Warren’s voice portrays his anger and concern of the fight ahead.

“I’ve fought them before. They are not to be taken lightly and we will meet them face to face. As we speak Superman is making his way back with Will, Athena, Carrie, and the other flying types. It appears those who gave Black Adam his powers have sent the new champion of Shazam to take care of him. Once they get back we will formulate how to protect the school and its students.” Bruce walked out the door and took a left.

Helena and Warren looked at each other as hope mixed with fear danced across their faces. Hugging each other Warren smiled and took her hand again.” C’mon, we’ve come this far we have to see it through to the end.”

* * *

Superman, Will, Athena, Carrie, and Wonder Woman looked down as Shazam grabbed Adams left arm and slammed his head back into the ground.” Black Adam, I have been sent by the Gods to bring you before them so they may pass judgment.” Shazam proclaimed in an authoritative voice.

“The Gods gave me my powers just as they gave you yours, they don’t have the right to pass judgment on me without passing it on themselves!” Adam tried to push Shazam off him but was slammed back down.

“Wrong Adam, they gave you this power and they can take it away.  Now stand and come with me.” Shazam held Adams left arm tightly as he got to his feet.

“Take away my power, Shazam? I don’t think so!” Adam swung his left arm around in an attempt to throw Shazam but he held tight and now the two were face to face. Adam had a surprised look that quickly changed to anger as he lunged forward to try and fly away with Shazam but he was forced back to the ground.

“Your attempts to get away will not work Adam. The Gods have made me three times stronger than you and I will bring you before them.” Taking his other hand Shazam grabbed Adam’s cape.

“No, I will not be stripped of that which is rightfully mine! “ Adam punched Shazam repeatedly in an attempt to free himself but Shazam held him tight and didn’t seem affected by the blows.

“Shazam, do you need our assistance?” Superman crossed his arms and smirked.

Quickly punching Adam in the gut which stopped the hits and nearly dropping him Shazam looked up and smiled. “Oh hello my friends, I was so focused on Adam I didn’t see you. “ Grabbing Adam by his tunic and lifting the weakened former hero Shazam smiled again. “No, I have this under control, I will be taking him back for judgment and if I can I will come back to help you with the rest of them.”

“Very well, we look forward to your help if possible.” Superman looked at the weakened Adam who was glaring up at him. Winking at him Superman watched as Shazam took off like a bullet with Adam in tow straight up followed by tremendous thunder. Turning to the others Superman floated over to them before speaking. “Well we can literally thank the Gods for this one. Come we need to head back to the school, we need to regroup, I have a feeling Luthor and the rest aren’t finished yet.”

Will approached Superman and nervously raised his hand. “Um, Mr. Superman what do you mean Luthor and the rest? Surely we showed them we aren’t just a bunch of scared kids, do you really think they will continue their attacks? Look at what Warren and his brother did to them.” Will pointed to the wide swath of scorched earth below them.

Superman stopped and looked at Will then the ground below them and gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s because of what Warren and his brother did, because of what Shazam did, and what Batman did is the exact reason why Luthor and his group will make their appearance. Make no mistake that when they do make their move we will all need to fight as hard as we ever have because they will be fighting just as hard to defeat us.” Patting Will on the left shoulder he flew towards the school followed by Wonder Woman.

Will floated for a moment as Carrie and Athena came up next to him at watched the two heroes fly to the school. Will look at the ground as Athena hugged him, “Don’t worry Will, they know what they are doing. We just have to trust them and follow their lead, let’s get back to the school.”

“I know Athena, I’m not looking forward to what’s about to happen that’s all.” Will sighed. “I wish my parent were here.”

Carrie took Will’s hand and smiled. “Your parents are probably fighting tooth and nail to get here Will, but remember this. As long as your heart still beats and you still breathe they are always with you.”

Will smiled and the three friends flew back to the school.  Soon they were back onto the damaged landing platform where they were met by the Green Lantern. “Hey kids, welcome back!”

“Thanks Mr. Lantern, glad to be back.” Will smiled as he marveled at the superhero.

‘Whoa there kid, it’s Hal. Hey, there is a meeting going on in the auditorium so if you would be so kind I think they have some interesting news for all of you.” Hal extended his right arm towards the main entry and smiled.

“Oh, well thanks again Mr. Lant—Hal.” Will stammered as he was escorted by Carrie and Athena to the auditorium. Opening the door Will scanned the room and towards the back he saw Layla wave and give a big smile as she did a little jump. Will smiled and waved back then he saw Warren leaning against the wall with Helena, Warren shot him a smirk and a nod while Helena smiled and waved. Moving his way back to Layla she instantly grabbed his right hand and arm then kissed his cheek.

The auditorium doors opened again as Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman, and Green Lantern walked up onto the stage to address the crowd of assembled super heroes.

Batman walked to the front of the stage and spoke into the standing microphone. “For those of you who are wondering if we are winning this battle I will be blunt. We have made a significant move in the right direction, but we haven’t won yet.  As many of you who have fought against the Legion before you understand they don’t give up easy and we are confident that Luthor and the senior members of the Legion will be our next opponents.”

The main projection screen slowly descended behind all the supers on stage as Superman stepped forward. On the screen was a bird’s eye view of the area with the school circled in red and at the top was the Legion is currently position. “As you can see from this satellite image the amount of damage to the Legions forces are significant. However if we zoom in to sector 3, grid 4 you will see that the signature domed shape of the Legions portable headquarters.”  Superman pointed at the screen as it adjusted to the sections mentioned.

Wonder Woman stepped forward and stood next to Superman. “It has been our experience that when the dome shows that Luthor has taken a vested interest.  So here is what we will do to counter what we suspect they will do.”

On the screen it was divided to four sections with each section showing a number of triangles and circles. Aquaman boldly walked to the front and with his trident pointed that the different sections. “In the past the Legion has employed a policy of power in which they uses their strength in order to overwhelm the opposing sides. So we will take up positions here, here, and here. “Aquaman pointed to three different locations on the map. “Now, since there aren’t any large bodies of water my particular skills are limited, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to hold my own on dry land. I suspect that the Legion will go with the same philosophy so expect to see foes like Blank Manta and other aquatic types.”

Bruce stood next to Aquaman to continue the briefing. “More information will be given to each of you once we are broken into teams. We will need to fight this battle differently because we aren’t fighting rank armatures. These opponents are hardened killers and take no remorse in what they do, they are powerful and determined so take every precaution. Like I said before protect yourself, protect your team mates, protect your school.  We will now divide into teams, the same team leads remain in place so please stand by the team leaders when your name is called.”

As names were being called Helena stood next to Warren and looked behind them as a random group of established heroes mixed with her surviving classmates form behind her. Thoughts of what they have experienced so far flooded her mind and she had to turn away and close her eyes. How can she be responsible for so many people, try to protect Warren and Jae, and not let Aneleh go feral again?


	20. Failed Negotiations

Once the different battle groups were selected they all went out onto the main lawn of the school. Helena stood next to Warren and faced their group as did the other team leaders. Helena looked over at Warrens face, while he tried to carry on his usual stern appearance she could see a lingering sense of doubt at what they were about to face. Having felt her gaze he turned to Helena and gave a smirk before both turned to look out again.

“Look!” Will shouted as he pointed in the direction of the Legion of Doom. In the distance a white trail from a rocket could be seen heading their direction and before anyone could react it crashed into the grounds before the school. A portion of the rocket remained above ground as the smoking tail section dropped to the ground and the device split in half.

Rising from the rocket popped out a holo-projection screen that displayed an image of a man. He was only visible from the shoulders up, had a stern appearance and was bald. “Luthor!” Superman exclaimed.

Looking down at Superman Lex Luthor smiled. ”Hello Kal El, so good to see all of you are in one piece.”

“Spare the pleasantries. What do you want?” Superman replied as he glared at his old nemesis.

“Fine, I want a face to face meeting. You bring your best and I will bring mine. I want to negotiate a truce, this fight has become too much of a financial burden on me in men and equipment.” Luthor looked visibly annoyed as he scanned the field full of students. He then gave a momentary glare at Warren and Helena before he was addressed by Superman again.

“Are you saying you want to surrender? Name your terms.” Superman crossed his arms in disbelief, he knows Luthor is up to something else but not sure what.

“Simple, we will let you and this school exist and you will not pursue us. I do have far more resources available to me and if I wanted to I could make them available to me and finish you all.” Luthor looked menacing as he boasted.

“If that is what you want why do you want to meet in person?” Batman interjected as his mind was deciphering the situation.

Luthor looked over at him and smiled. “When I conclude a business deal I like to shake hands. After all, a deal is a deal Batman, you of all people know how a business is run.”

Bruce’s eyes narrowed as he continued to glare.” Yes, I am very familiar.”

Luthor looked back at Superman.” So, shall we say five minutes? “

“Five minutes.” Superman’s short response displayed his mistrust.

Smiling the image of Lex Luthor disappeared and the rocket exploded destroying the camera.

Turning to face Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, J’onn, The Flash, Green Arrow, and Baron Battle Superman rubbed his chin. “He’s up to something why else would he want to have all of our best members out there?”

“He’s planning on finishing this game his way. He doesn’t want to negotiate he wants to get us out of the way so he can take the school.” Bruce relied sternly.

“Agreed, so what do we do?” Wonder Woman folded her arms.

“We meet them. “ J’onn said in his deep monotone voice.

* * *

In the middle of the charred field true to his word stood Lex Luthor flanked on both sides by the top members of the Legion of Doom. To his right stood a being of cold calculating logic, he stood as tall as Luthor who was over six feet tall. His face was covered by an expressionless mask with bundles of wires encircling his silver domed head. He wore a long sleeve purple tunic, black pants, and dark boots, his name is Brainiac.

To his right stood a shorter man who looked more at home in the frozen north than in the middle of the empty field.  He wore a blue fur trimmed parka, seal skin boots, artic anti-glare glasses, and a holstered ice ray. His features looked like an Inuit but his skin was an icy blue color and his hair was white as snow, his name is Captain Cold.

 Next to him stood an apparently pleasant looking man, he was all smiles as he stood excitedly waiting for the other side to show.  He was a thin man about six feet three inches tall, he wore a jester’s hat and black mask. His outfit was something more commonly seen at a Ren-fair than in the real world with his black and yellow harlequin-esc style. This is the Toyman and he loves to play games with his victims.

At the end of the row stood a man who apparently isn’t from this world, he was a well-built man with purple skin, black slicked back short hair and a dominant widow’s peak.  His eyes were yellow and his outfit looked translucent in its bright yellow and black colors, on his chest was a circle symbol that resembled that of the Green Lanterns. This man was Sinestro, former member of the Green Lantern Corps and now its greatest enemy.

To Luthor’s right stood a being of incredible stature dressed entirely in a black skintight suit with small fins coming off his forearms and calves. This being was nearly seven feet tall and wore a large, oval helmet with tubes coming off the back onto a pack he carried. Two large oval yellow eyes stared forward, unblinking.  A rhythmic, mechanical sound came from his pack as he clenched his fists, this creature was Black Manta.

To Black Manta’s right stood Bizarro, a grotesque form of Superman who was equal in strength but not intellect who apparently fell asleep standing up. Standing to his right stood an enormous gorilla, he looked over at Bizarro with annoyance as he rested his immense weight on his large hair cover forearms.  Grunting he turned to look towards the school watching for the enemy to arrive, his name is Gorilla Grodd, disposed ruler of Gorilla City.

A moment passed when Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, J’onn, The Flash, Green Arrow, and Baron Battle arrived on scene. Wonder Woman carried Batman, Superman carried Aquaman and Baron Battle, the Flash ran to the location as J’onn and the Green Arrow were carried in a green bubble by the Green Lantern.

Standing thirty feet across from each other the two groups stared, the only noise heard was the Toyman’s giddy excitement and Grodd’s occasional grunts. “If there is one thing I could always expect from the Justice League is punctuality!” Luthor smiled as he extended his arms and scanned the group.

“Skip it Lex, we all know you didn’t have us come here to negotiate a withdraw so why don’t you cut the chase?” Superman stood defiantly when he heard a snort and saw Bizarro wake suddenly from his nap.

“Is Superman here yet?” Bizarro spoke crudely as he rubbed his deep set eyes.  Looking at the group he smiled when he saw Superman and took a step when he was stopped by the massive arm of Gorilla Grodd. Slowly he stepped back in line and looked annoyed as he folded his arms and grumbled.

“Well, always astute aren’t we Kal El? You are correct we are here to decide the fate of this battle. I have great plans for those young supers and they won’t learn the true skills they need in a place that coddles them, teaches them compassion for others. They need to understand life isn’t about fairness and equality, that there are leaders and followers, rules and laws! When we defeat you they will see the ideals you all hold onto are outdated with no place in today’s world!” Luthor clenched his fists and grimaced as he reaches to touch a button on his belt. From a hidden pack on his back Luthor’s body was covered in an armor the glowed green, it was powered by Kryptonite and his only weapon against Superman.

“Now J’onn!” Bruce spoke into his communicator as the Justice League jumped back and an illusion created by J’onn dissolved and fighting groups from the school became visible to Luthor and the rest of the Legion of Doom.

Warren stood next to Baron and Jae, all three had their arms alit in flames of yellow, orange and blue flames. Helena stood next to Warren with her electronic batons drawn and she took a defiant stance as she glared at the enemy.

Luthor stepped back in surprise before composing himself. “We came prepared for such a thing! Attack, show no mercy!” Luthor looked behind him as a few hundred troops sprang up from holes in the ground and ran towards the Justice League and Sky High fighters.

Helena and Warren lead their group of hand to hand fighters when Gorilla Grodd landed with a mighty roar in front of them. He pounded his chest and his sharp teeth dripped with saliva as he continued to roar. “Girl I am going to kill you!”

Charging at Helena a huge wall of flames came between Grodd and Helena as Warren launched a fire attack. “I’ll turn you _ash_ before I let you even near her!” Warren stood in front of Helena.

Grodd roared again. “Foolish boy, die with her!” Grodd charged again as Warren unleashed a huge fireball that struck Grodd who stood and protected his face with his massive forearms, the smell of burning hair filled the air. Instantly Grodd jumped high into the air landing on the ground before Warren and Helena throwing them off their feet. Grodd quickly grabbed Warren and threw him behind him in the dirt. He then turned to a stunned Helena and grabbed her by the neck with his massive left hand. “Where is your beast now girl eh? Your reputation is pale and pathetic, now die!”

Raising his left arm to smash her to the ground Grodd felt immense pain in his arm as he looked to see a bloody stump of hair and torn muscle throbbing where his prey was a moment ago. Shrieking in pain he looked around and behind him stood Aneleh holding his massive, twitching limb. Extreme rage filled her face as her yellow eyes shone bright.  A yellow, swirling energy surrounded her body then exploded in all direction like a gale force wind as she roared louder than anyone had heard before and it put fear into Grodd’s heart.

Grodd turned to run from her when Aneleh jumped and smashed him to the ground with a loud growl, she then kicked him onto his back and stood on his massive chest. A big toothy smile came across her face as she began to repeatedly strike him with his own dismembered arm. Blood, fur, teeth, and bone flew from the massive creature until his skull was unrecognizable. All promises made to Helena were once again broken as Aneleh had killed and she wasn’t done yet.

Turning in the direction her battle group was going she took the broken massive limb and clutching it like a sword Aneleh jumped and landed in front of her stunned comrades as she ran and swung Grodd’s arm through the advancing enemy. With each swing bodies went flying into the air, screams of pain filled the sky until the massive limb was so destroyed she cast it aside. Rage and the need to protect were Aneleh’s only motivation as she indiscriminately tore off the limbs of anyone that attacked her and soon the enemy ground troops were at a standstill as she stood in front of them. Her body was covered in blood, she was breathing heavily as a loud growl rose from her throat. If anyone dare make a move she would make them regret it.


	21. Finale

Baron Battle fought alongside Jae as each set fire to the approaching enemy forces.  Baron shot off fire bombs that created large explosions that threw men in different directions. Looking over his left shoulder at Jae, Baron felt a sense of pride at watching his young son holding his own in such a difficult battle. Suddenly Baron heard Warren yell as he flew through the air and landed in their direction followed by the shrieking of Gorilla Grodd. Then a sound that sent a shiver down his spine with the ear splitting roar of Aneleh. Turning his head towards her Baron saw the explosion of yellow energy erupt from Aneleh as she jumped upon Grodd. “Amazing, she has such raw savage power!”

Jae quickly ran over to Warren who slowly stood up. Looking in Aneleh’s direction they could see the bloody limb of Grodd flailing about before Aneleh stopped.  Then with a grunt she leapt over the surrounding combatants landing with a thud in front of the enemy forces and cleaved her way through the frightened mass of men.

Jae moved towards Aneleh. “Warren we have to do something, she’ll kill them all!”

Before they could get to her the two came under attack again stopping any attempts to help her.  Fighting his new opponent Warren noticed that the fighter felt different, almost a mixture of wood and plastic.  Grabbing one to take a better look Warren could see the fighter was a giant toy soldier with a smooth expressionless face and a visible mold seam running down the front of the body. Turning to Jae and Baron he shouted, “They are just toys!”

“Great! Now I don’t have to hold back!” Baron responded as he melted all the toy soldiers around him.

In the distance Warren could see the Toyman jumping up in down in anger as all his soldiers were melted. “No fair! You melted my toys! Not fair at all!”

Warren took a step towards the Toyman when he saw a blur of red and gold quickly move past him followed by a strong gust of wind. The Toyman was hit by the blur knocking him out and before his limp body could hit the ground the Flash caught him in his right arm. The Flash smiled at Warren before disappearing towards the school with the Toyman over his right shoulder. Warren then turned his attention to Aneleh and saw her covered in blood facing off against a clearly terrified enemy.

* * *

 Aneleh’s growls filled the air as she scanned the men in front of her. Her arms were outstretched as if to say to the enemy ‘come no closer’ and to her friends ‘stay back, I got this’. In front of her the crowd started to shuffle and before long a person came into her vision.  Captain Cold stood at the lead of his men as he starred at Aneleh. She furrowed her brow as her growls grew deeper and bared her sharp teeth at the small blue man.

“So, you are her. You are quite impressive and remind me of a small Kodiak bear.” Captain Cold’s voice had a slight accent as he made hand movements to depict a small bear.

“You come near me and I will kill you like one!” Aneleh growled through her clenched teeth.

Captain Cold smiled. “My dear, do you take me for a fool? You don’t grow up around such creatures without learning a thing or two about killing bears.  You are a savage beast and a threat, so like all threats you must be taken care of.”

Captain Cold made a slow move for his freeze gun when Aneleh leaned forward. “I wouldn’t ice pop. You saw what happened to that big monkey.”

“I have no fear of you beast, just try and stop me.” Captain Cold quickly drew his gun and fired his ice blasts at Aneleh who virtually disappeared in front of him. Her troops quickly separated to avoid the ice blast as Captain Cold looked in the air and around him trying to find her. To his left Aneleh landed for a moment before disappearing as he fired again. “You want to play games? Let’s see if your friends like games, how about freeze tag?”

Captain Cold started shooting at her friends freezing them solid as they ran away. When he took aim at another student Aneleh’s clawed hand grabbed his wrist and snapped it upward as a blast went soaring into the sky. Yelling in pain Captain Cold tried to pull away but Aneleh had a firm grip on his arm. Quickly he aimed his other freeze ray with his left hand firing at her face.  Aneleh’s reflexes did not waiver as she successfully dodged every shot fired at her and still didn’t let go of his right arm.

Kicking him swiftly in the stomach Captain Cold doubled over with a loud grunt then she followed the kick with a strong right handed punch to his head effectively dropping him to the ground. Aneleh took the gun and pointed at him. ”Tell me how to unfreeze them and I won’t use this on you.” Gesturing behind her at her frozen team mates the bright yellow eyes glared into his broken glasses that exposed a bright blue right eye.

“You can forget it, they will soon be dead!” Captain Cold leaned on his left elbow as he spit blood onto the ground. Aneleh growled, aimed at his feet and pulled the trigger. Slowly moved up his legs, panic set in as she got closer to his neck. “Alright it’s the red button on the other side of the gun!”

Looking at the gun Aneleh saw a red and a green button. “If this is a trap I will freeze you solid and smash you to pieces. Just to make sure you I’m going to freeze you all the way.”

“No wait, it’s the green button!” Captain Cold said before he was completely covered.

“For your sake let’s hope so.” Aneleh pushed the green button and unfroze her all her friends before unfreezing Captain Cold. Starting with his arms and legs she tied them up so he wouldn’t be a threat before defrosting him all the way.  She checked on each of her friends to make sure they were okay when a large commotion caught her attention. Standing fully Aneleh watched as Superman fought Bizarro to the east, Aquaman was fighting Black Manta to the south, and Green Lantern was having a ring battle with Sinestro in the skies above.

As sanity slowly returned to her Aneleh scanned the landscape for Warren and Jae. Relief came over her as she saw they were fighting alongside Baron to the north of her.  Looking at Superman again she could see Lex Luthor shooting a green beam at him which weakened the hero.  Bizarro continued punching Superman before he threw him high up into the air before slamming him down to the ground.  Anger once again filled Aneleh as she sprinted towards Superman to help him.

* * *

Lex Luthor watched in delight as Bizarro pummeled the weakened Superman. “You should never have resisted us Superman! This day has been long coming as we have lost far too much at the hands of the Justice League. After today _we_ will be victorious and when history recalls this day they will show how the Justice League failed to stop the overwhelming might of the Legion of Doom!”

Bizarro stood over the massive frame of Superman, grasping him by his shirt he smiled with a jagged tooth grin. “People say Bizarro ugly, but Bizarro say you ugly. When Bizarro finishes with you Bizarro will be pretty and Lois will love Bizarro!”

“What are you doing fool! Stop delaying and finish him off!” Luthor stood with his hands on his metallic hips when he felt something jump on him. Looking up he saw the bright yellow angry eyes of Aneleh as she dug her claws into sides of his chrome armor. “Get off me stupid girl!” Pushing a button on his left arm 1000 volts of electricity swarmed his suit, but Aneleh wasn’t letting go. Her hair stood on end as wave after wave of electricity filled her muscles. Growls of pain mixed with determination grew louder as Luthor increased the voltage when suddenly she tore the back off his armor.  

Rolling to the ground Aneleh staggered to her feet, her hair still smoking as Luthor walked up and lifted her by her tatter shirt. “That was a futile effort you dumb creature. I shall delight in dissecting you myself when this is all done. Now stay put while the grown-ups fight!” Luthor punched Aneleh in the stomach then threw her to the ground.

As Aneleh lay on the dirt her eyes grew wide with fear as she held her abdomen. Sitting up she coughed up some blood as her mind raced. Tears began to stream down her face when Aneleh’s fear turned to anger as a yellow glow slowly swirled around her body.

As Luthor walked back to watch the fight between Superman and Bizarro a bright yellow flash behind him caught his attention as it reflected off the chrome armor. Turning around he saw Aneleh on her knees looking skyward. She suddenly exploded into a sad, angry howl and the more she roared the brighter the glow became. Turning her attention to Luthor Aneleh roared, “ _Murderer_!”  

With a speed unequaled Aneleh had leapt on Luthor grabbing the sides his chest plate. The force of her momentum sent him on his back and with a grunt she tore off the chest plate throwing it behind her. Luthor kicked her off of him as he scrambled backwards to get away but Aneleh quickly came back at him clawing at the armor on his legs.

Grabbing his leg armor Aneleh swung Luthor high into the air and smashed him to the ground repeatedly before throwing him at Bizarro smashing the Kryptonite shards he had into dust. The effect on Superman was immediate as he quickly stood up and punched Bizarro with all his strength sending his foe far into the distance.

Turning around he saw the enraged Aneleh running full speed towards Luthor when Superman caught her with his right arm. The force of her assault was so strong that his feet slid a little while pulling her back. “Aneleh stop! Calm down!”  He could tell her anger was too strong for to hear him as she swung her arms wildly in Luthor’s direction. Superman could no longer hold her back or calm her down so he struck the back of her head making her limp in his arms.

* * *

Helena awoke to find herself lying on the cracked concrete sidewalk in front of a house she didn’t recognize at first. As her vision cleared Helena saw the house was Aneleh’s. Slowly standing up she walked up the steps and opened the front door to see Aneleh curled up on the couch with her legs to her chest. Her yellow eyes switched from looking at the floor to looking at Helena and a small smile came across her face.

“Aneleh, what am I doing here? Why did you take me from the fight?” Helena walked and sat next to her on the couch.

“I had to put you here. I needed to do something. I needed to finish this for us.” Aneleh responded with a softened voice.

“What do you mean finish? Please don’t tell me you killed again.” Helena leaned forward with her eyes wide.

“I had to kill the big gorilla or else he was going to kill us, he left me no choice.” Aneleh sat up slightly

“You promised me Aneleh! You could have injured him, not kill him!” Helena stood up in frustration as Aneleh followed, putting her index finger to her mouth and shushing her. “What?  Why are you shushing me?”

“I told you I had to protect us, I  thought the bald man hurt us but we are strong.” Aneleh smiled as she looked at her bedroom door.

From the room Helena’s eyes grew wide when she heard a baby start to cry. Looking at Aneleh she understood by what she meant when she said ‘we’ “Are you saying?”

“You need to go, she is mine for now. She is hungry, goodbye sister.” Aneleh waved her arm and Helena woke up.

Quickly sitting up in the bed and looking around Helena saw she was back in her room at Wayne Manor. Rubbing her eyes to make sure she was actually there and not the station’s copy she smiled in relief.  Helena then remembered Aneleh’s words as they replayed in her head when looking down at her abdomen. She put both hands on her smooth skin and started to cry. After a few moments Helena composed herself, got off the bed and opened the door. Walking slowly down the hall Helena looked down from the top of the stairs and after descending them she entered the dining room where Bruce, Warren, Jae, and Baron sat in an awkward silence as Bruce held an ice pack his hand.

Warren looked over and stood up then walked to Helena.” How are you feeling? Are you hungry?”

“Well yeah I am actually.” Helena sat across from Bruce who was staring her down with his blue eyes. Warren left to go to the kitchen to make her something to eat. “So how did I get back?  I assume we won if I am here.”

“Aneleh made a rather impressive appearance. She single handedly took out Lex Luthor and ended the fight. After his troops saw what you-she did they lost faith and retreated.” Baron responded excitedly.

“Yes, despite her bloodlust it was what turned the tide of the battle.” Bruce responded.

Warren came back into room with some toast, orange juice, and a bowl of cereal. He placed it in front of Helena and smiled. Taking a drink of juice Helena took a deep breath, “It’s about Aneleh I want to talk about actually. While I was out I found out some very interesting news.”

Bruce raised his left eyebrow and looked over at Warren who took a big bite of toast. “What did she tell you?” Bruce responded.

Helena stared at Warren with nervous excitement. “I’m pregnant.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To read some of my other works check out my profile for the new original series "The Brothers Redoak."


End file.
